[Dixielandjazz] Cherry

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

The most recent live performance of CHERRY I heard was by Benny Golson, in Germany three or four years ago. 
During the first half of the concert I was not pleased with the drumming, but having moved elsewhere in the hall for the second half (downstairs rather than the small balcony) I was amazed to discover I'd been the victim of an acoustic freak  -- some of the sound of the drumming shot up and resonated all the way to the rear of the balcony, and some stayed below -- the bassist was good, and the third of the young Europeans played lyrical lines with not the least hint of asmanynotesaspossible-regardless. What a lovely piano feature we heard, a tuneful original. 
Golson refers to CHERRY when talking about the programme of his CD Terminal One, 

and it did seem to be one of those themes which allowed the tenor soloist to hold together elements of what are generally referred to as different periods of jazz. 

Of course on an earlier recording made in Switzerland Golson played a very lengthy solo on his "I Remember Clifford" which went into "E Lucevan Le Stelle" just as one gathers Bechet had played operatic arias for European audiences eight years before..  

I suppose he was doing a number of things some musicians whose work might be associated with this list would neglect to do. 

Don Redman was of course a master