This is Cherry in a highly ritualistic and mystic mood. No sign of a trumpet or of conventional drums, but many unusual instruments from Africa, China and elsewhere, and some chanted mantras. I’m afraid it’s all too monotonous for me: repetitious music is not necessarily transcendent.
The record includes some puerile melodic improvising (such as Cherry’s harmonium on Pictures), and a failure to exploit the fascinating timbres of a gamelan orchestra. Bernt Rosengren is on one piece, but he too is forced off his main instrument, and into an unsatisfactory environment. I can’t recommend this album to most jazz listeners, and certainly not to admirer’s of Cherry’s work with Coleman and Ayler.
Discography
Gamla Stan – The Old Town By Night; Love Train; Bass Figure For Ballatune; Moving Pictures For The Ear; Tibet (38 min)
Cherry (pno/harmonium/gong/perc); Bengt Berger (perc); Christer Bothen (pno/perc); Bernt Rosengren (taragot). Stockholm 30/4 & 1/5/73.
(Sonet SNTF 653 £1.49)
