''Togetherness'' is a live album by trumpeter

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. Cherry played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins, and later coached the team for five se ...

. It was recorded in the spring and summer of 1965 in Paris, France, and was released on LP in 1966 by

Durium Records Durium was an Italian record label, active from 1935 to 1989. Part of the catalogue and the brand were subsequently taken over by Ricordi, who used it for some reissues. Its initial trademark consisted of the writing Durium in block letters, su ...

. On the album, which features a five-movement composition titled "Togetherness," Cherry is joined by saxophonist

Gato Barbieri Leandro "Gato" Barbieri (November 28, 1932 – April 2, 2016) was an Argentine jazz tenor saxophonist who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and is known for his Latin jazz recordings of the 1970s. His nickname, Gato, is Spa ...

, vibraphonist

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (born March 30, 1935 in Heidelberg, Germany) is a German jazz pianist, composer, and educator. Career Berger played piano in Germany when he was ten and worked in his teens at a club in Heidelberg. He learned modern jazz from v ...

, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, and drummer Aldo Romano. In 1976, the album was reissued by

Inner City Records Inner City Records was a jazz record company and label founded by Irv Kratka in 1976 in New York City. The company was a division of Music Minus One and also owned the label Classic Jazz. It started with reissues, then moved on to new recordin ...

with the title ''Gato Barbieri & Don Cherry''.

Background

The quintet heard on the album was formed in 1964, and was Cherry's first steady group. Berger recalled: "For the first time in my experience there was a kind of music with absolutely no problems; there was no need to talk about style... since we spoke different languages, it was hardly possible to communicate verbally... Everything we later played evolved collectively." Although all of the musicians would go on to record additional albums with Cherry in various contexts, ''Togetherness'' is the quintet's only recording.

Other versions

Cherry's 1974 album '' Orient'' features a rendition of "Togetherness" with a different ensemble. Pianist

Irène Schweizer Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvis ...

included a version of "Togetherness One - First Movement" on her 2001 live album '' Chicago Piano Solo''. In 2016, Canadian trumpeter Ellwood Epps assembled a band called Togetherness!, named after Cherry's album. The group's 2022 release includes a version of the Cherry composition.

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, Scott Yanow wrote: "While Cherry plays pretty free, he sounds conservative next to the often-violent wails of Barbieri. This interesting set... is for the open-minded only." Kevin Le Gendre of ''

Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'', launched in 1997, is the UK jazz monthly magazine. ''Jazzwise'' has a broad sub-genre coverage, from jazz, improv, hard bop, and jazz-rock to bebop and classic jazz, and also covers jazz crossover, including jazz-funk, jazz hip-h ...

'' stated that ''Togetherness'' "marked out Barbieri as a brilliant new voice in the avant-garde movement." Bob Blumenthal, writing for ''

The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'', called the album "a confident recital," and noted that the tracks "string playful themes together with solos that are free yet convey joy instead of the then prevalent anger."

Track listing

Composed by Don Cherry. # "Togetherness One - First Movement" – 5:08 # "Togetherness One - Second Movement" – 5:26 # "Togetherness One - Third Movement" – 9:41 # "Togetherness Two - Fourth Movement" – 12:07 # "Togetherness Two - Fifth Movement" – 9:41

Personnel

– cornet *

– tenor saxophone *

– vibraphone * Jean-François Jenny-Clark – bass * Aldo Romano – drums

References

{{Reflist 1966 live albums Don Cherry (trumpeter) live albums