Don Cherry - Don Cherry (Brown Rice)

I didn’t realise until this morning, when I sat down and played this album, that it’s not called Brown Rice. It was called Brown Rice when it was first released in 1975, but re-named for its 1977 release to Don Cherry (the issue I own). I wonder why. It’ll always be Brown Rice to me. (Say Brown Rice one more time, motherfucker–I double-dare you!)

I imagine there was some marketing department meeting at the record label where they decided that the thing holding back sales of the album, where avant-garde jazz trumpet squawks over the top of a droning mash-up of Indian, Arabic and African rhythms, was the too-arty painting on the sleeve and a too-healthfood shop name.

The gatefold sleeve has lots of information about the tune Brown Rice: a transcription of Cherry’s solo, a stereo mix diagram, a graphic score–and both a biography of Cherry and a rather florid description of the album written by Stanley Crouch–none of which are very useful.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DonCherry
#BrownRice
#Jazz
#Music