David Ornette Cherry
music compositionDavid Ornette Cherry is a composer, band leader, and jazz keyboardist, and music producer. He grew up in Watts, California, and has played with some of the great jazz artists of our times -- Ed Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, Dewey Redman, Nana Vasconcelos, Jim Pepper, Phil Ranelin, Ralph "Buzzy" Jones, Justo Almario, Kamau Daaood -- and his father, the late, great jazz trumpeter, Don Cherry.
David Ornette Cherry recently performed his high-spirited, elegant Ensemble for Improvisors at Jimmy Mak's in Portland, the Rueben Museum through the Jazz Museum in Harlem in New York city, at Loyola Marymount University, the Getty Museum, and ALOUD at Central Library in Los Angeles. His Organic Roots band from Los Angeles performed in a jazz festival in Sardinia, Italy in September 2008. His collaboration with performance artist, Susan Banyas, No Strangers Here Today, is touring the country. He is the composer for Embers, a jazz opera in poems, written by Los Angeles poet Terry Wolverton, and premiering in workshop form in January, 2009 in Los Angeles as part of the ALOUD/LA series. His music score for choreographer Gregg Bielemeier's Half of Some, Neither of Either, produced by White Bird, premiered in December 2008.
David Ornette Cherry's CD releases include: Organic Groove, End of a Century, Ensemble for Improvisors. Organic Roots, Organic Express, and Cherry Jam/Open Mic/music & spoken word, and Organic Journey/Back on the Path.