David Ornette Cherry
David Ornette Cherry, Collaborator and Performer for No Strangers Here Today, is a composer, arranger, and band leader as well as the winner of the "2003 ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music." David was born the same year Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry recorded their first album, Somethin Else. The ambient music streaming through his childhood was generated by the early collaborations of his dad, Don Cherry, with Coleman and the musicians who visited his parents' Mariposa Avenue home in Los Angeles.
Cherry studied music composition at Bishop College in Dallas and concentrated on world music at California Institute of the Arts. He spent challenging and unforgettable summers attending the Creative Music Studio at Woodstock, New York. These summer experiences gave him the space to compose and create music with Trilok Gurtu, Olatunji, Jai Deva, and Foday Musa Suso and to explore the relationship of jazz and music from other cultures. While jazz remains both the root and sustenance of his sound, he often incorporates the sounds of the world in what he calls "multi-kulti" music.
His background includes performances with Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, Nana Vasconcelos, Olatunji, Hassan Hakmoun, Carlos Ward, Jim Pepper, Collin Walcott, Wadada Leo Smith, Phil Ranelin, Ralph "Buzzy" Jones and Justo Almario.
David forges ahead with his own invigoratingly fresh sound punctuated by driving rhythms, memorable lines, and improvisational space. David states, "The music never stopped. Jazz is dynamic. It's not about JUST referencing the past. It's about keeping the momentum going like a ball that keeps rolling along. My compositions are a musical fusion of cultures laid firmly down on a foundation of purely garage-style beats. It's a union of textures, sounds, lifestyles, surroundings, and messages in a universal language emphasizing a positive state of mind."
Acoustic piano, electronic keyboards, melodica, wood flute and douss'n gouni are his instruments. Recent releases are available on-line: Organic Roots/Diatic Records and Ensemble for Improvisors/Big Fish. For additional information, please visit: davidornettecherry.com.