After Complete Communion came Symphony For Improvisers (recorded 19/9/66). For the second record, Cherry expanded the band, keeping Barbieri, Grimes and Blackwell, and adding two members of his European group, Karl Berger (vibes/piano) and Jean-François Jenny-Clark (bass), as well as a special guest, Pharoah Sanders, on tenor sax and piccolo. Symphony sticks with the same format as Communion (Cherry sometimes called his side-long tracks ‘cocktails’). If anything, it’s a touch wilder than the first record (esp. Barbieri and Sanders) - the solos are slightly longer and the composed themes don’t come around as often. Sanders had spent less time with Cherry than the others - he tends not to bother with the tunes, and, if I’m not mistaken, is not heard at all on Side 2.
In 2007, ESP filled a gap in the story, with three volumes of live recordings by Cherry’s European band. These were taken from a month-long residency at Café Montmartre (Copenhagen, not Paris) in March ‘66, between the sessions for Communion and Symphony. Everything here is in ‘cocktail form,’ and anything goes. There are themes from the two Blue Note records (plus the ‘non-cocktail’ third, Where Is Brooklyn?), as well as tunes by Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and Abdullah Ibrahim. There is also music from outside that orbit - Cherry livens up a Vol. 1 cocktail with ‘A Taste Of Honey,’ Vol. 2 makes room for Antônio Carlos Jobim’s ‘How Insensitive,’ and a Vol. 3 'Remembrance' includes Ray Brown’s ‘Two-Bass Hit’. Here’s a taste of Vol. 2.
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