Don Cherry (trumpeter)

Don Cherry
Don Cherry, Münster, 1987
Background information
Birth name	Donald Eugene Cherry
Born	(1936-11-18)November 18, 1936 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Died	October 19, 1995(1995-10-19) (aged 58) Málaga, Spain
Genres	Jazz, free jazz, world fusion music
Instruments	Cornet, pocket trumpet, piano
Associated acts	Codona, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley, Sonny Rollins, New York Contemporary Five, Naná Vasconcelos, La Monte Young, Old and New Dreams, Abdullah Ibrahim

Donald Eugene Cherry (November 18, 1936 – October 19, 1995) was an American jazz trumpeter. Noted for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, which began in the late 1950s, Cherry also became a pioneer of world fusion music in the 1960s. During this period, he incorporated various ethnic styles into his playing. After relocating to Sweden in the 1970s, he continued to tour and play festivals throughout the world and worked with a wide variety of musicians.

Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where his father (who also played trumpet) owned the Cherry Blossom Club, which hosted performances by Charlie Christian and Fletcher Henderson. In 1940, Cherry moved with his family to Los Angeles, California. He lived in the Watts neighborhood, and his father tended bar at the Plantation Club on Central Avenue, which at the time was the center of a vibrant jazz scene. Cherry recalled skipping school at Fremont High School in order to play with the swing band at Jefferson High School. This resulted in his transfer to Jacob Riis High School, a reform school, where he first met drummer Billy Higgins.

By the early 1950s Cherry was playing with jazz musicians in Los Angeles, sometimes acting as pianist in Art Farmer's group. While trumpeter Clifford Brown was in Los Angeles with Max Roach, Cherry attended a jam session with Brown and Larance Marable at Eric Dolphy's house, and Brown informally mentored Cherry. He also toured with saxophonist James Clay.