Don Cherry - Sunrise

For years this concert circulated only among a handful of Don Cherry devotees. Sunrise is its first official release: a 1977 performance capturing Cherry, Collin Walcott and Leon Thomas in their only documented appearance together, recorded live on March 5, 1977, at Pease Auditorium in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with the rest of Oregon joining for part of the evening.

It finds Cherry in a particularly fertile late-1970s stretch, when he was blending Eastern and African traditions into what he called "Organic Music." He moves fluidly between trumpet, the doussn'gouni (a West African hunter's harp from Mali), bamboo flutes, percussion and voice, while Walcott and Thomas help spin the set into a hypnotic, immersive whole. The music unfolds over long pieces, from the title track through both parts of "Doussn' Gouni Fly" to "Eastern Flute Song" and the closing "Holy River."

Licensed by the Don Cherry Estate and producer James Quinlan, the newly remastered audio is close and vivid, and the package features Moki Cherry artwork and new liner notes by Jason Weiss.

This double LP edition spreads the full concert across four sides, an essential addition for anyone following Cherry's global journey.