DON CHERRY — "mu" Second Part (review)

DON CHERRY — Album · 1969 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Miler72
I found an original LP of this, BYG/Actuel at my nearby Eugene, Oregon record store (this record store also sold a ton BYG/Actuel reprints in the jazz department). I was wanting to expand on my BYG/Actuel collection, stemming from my early childhood when my dad owned a copy of Musica Elettronica Viva's The Sound Pool, which really scared me as a kid, but I've came to terms with it since. Strangely, I only first knew of Don Cherry back in 1996 when I bought a copy of Steve Hillage's L. Other than the latter-day version of Todd Rundgren's Utopia appearing on it (other than Todd himself, who produced the album), Don Cherry also appears on it. Turns out he had a career in jazz music.

Mu Second Part was obviously from the same sessions that brought you the first. It could have been easily a double album, but it wasn't, probably because the first installment was the first ever release on BYG's Actuel subsidiary. It's unbelievable how much could be accomplished with just two musicians. He literally plays everything except drums and percussion (Ed Blackwell does that). This is rather unconventional jazz with an experimental bent, and ethnic influences showing up from time to time, especially the percussion and bamboo flute. Other times it's more traditional-like jazz, but still would make any smooth jazz listener a bit uncomfortable. The production of the album is awful, as is many of the other titles on BYG/Actuel (Gong's Magick Brother and Ame Son's Catalyse are particularly bad examples, even though those are good albums, musically), but it's a nice album to have for those looking for off-the-wall jazz.
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