Organic Journey cont’d

Organic Journey
Organic Journey Organic Journey marks the fifth and final CD in David Ornette Cherry’s “Organic” series, recordings that have spliced together Davids musical roots and the new branchings he continues to explore. Fittingly, here David enlists collaborators old and new; family and friends from his Los Angeles community, and musicians from his present home, Portland. The CD offers a retrospective tribute to mentors (his father Don, tabla master Tarinith Rao with whom David studied at Cal Arts in 1979-80) and inspirational figures (Fela Kuti, Langston Hughes). Simultaneously, Organic Journey presses forward into a new day (“Black President,” “New Groove towards Peace”). In the present that unfolds between past and future, we are already underway, “on the right path,” as we discover new soundtracks for familiar tropes of travel (“Going My Way,” “Pack Your Bags,” “Coming Out of the Tunnel”).

From his nine-year journey of Organic CD’s, David has assembled a palette of sounds, instruments, and textures, resonant with historical and geographical and historical touchstones. Here, David leaves soloing to his collaborators; he lays down sonic environments that create the feel, the vibe of his vision. Organic Journey combines and remixes organic elements with sophistication, elegance, and soul, injecting them into the electronic soundscapes of today, so that new musical generations can trace them back to their original sources. Instrumentation implemented here includes the oud, blues guitar, organ, sentir, sitar, accordion, and Native American flute, not to mention the raw human voice. Throughout the recording, percussive complexity is created by drawing on African and Indian drum textures in particular.

The conclusion to one stage of musical development simultaneously signals the genesis of the next. The process is organic: as David’s father Don was fond of saying, “There are no endings. Only beginnings.” David’s sense that he is “on the right path” is born of humility, not hubris. Just now, he feels, he is gaining a deeper connection to and insight into music. Knowledge brings awareness of what one does not know — but such realizations are themselves assurances that one is indeed on the right path. The right path leads into the unknown. An aura of mystery pervades this recording; my wife Anita dubbed the music on this CD “mysterious jazz.” Let these tunes’ rhythms of travel, of propulsive motion punctuated by pregnant pauses, embark you on the organic journey, and keep you on the right path.

– Paul Harris