Ed Cherry is a veteran jazz guitarist with a bagful of bonafides. He
was a student at Berklee in ’72, toured with Jimmy McGriff and Tim
Hardin (among other jazz luminaries) and
played in Dizzy Gillespie’s band for the last fifteen years of the
iconic trumpeter’s life. Along the way, Cherry’s worked with a wide
range of heavies, from Henry Threadgill and Oliver Lake to John Patton
and Steve Coleman. His indispensability as a sideman may have curtailed
his solo output, but
Soul Tree (February 12, 2016,
Posi-Tone Records) is his second for Posi-Tone four years after
It’s All Good, his first for the label (and fifth overall).
This one’s another organ trio setup like
Good but it’s got
Kyle Koehler on the Hammond B3 and Anwar Marshall on drums, and these
guys aren’t slouches. Cherry himself is firmly in the old school of
soul-jazz guitarists and his precise, understated style is smoky, cool
and sweet. Kenny Burrell is the guy I think most of when I hear Cherry
play.
The fare for
Soul Tree covers the gambit from Kool & The
Gang’s “Let The Music Take Your Mind,” where jazz and RnB hand in hand,
to the soulful swing put into Horace Silver’s “Peace.” In-between,
Cherry and his own gang take on tunes that offer a different angle than
the originals. A 2/4 swing caresses John Coltrane’s “Central Park West,”
while Mal Waldron’s “Soul Eyes” is made into a mellow bossa nova with a
heaping helping of octaves.
The trio simmers on “A New Blue” a blues-based tune from Jimmy Heath
tune and Cherry delivers tasty, relaxed single line notes. He’s got only
two of his own songs here, enough to show he’s a serious composer in
his own right. For the dynamic boogaloo “Rachel’s Step” Cherry gets
funky, and Koehler puts in work on the organ like Dr. Lonnie Smith.
“Little Girl Big Girl” has a fetching, soulful melody and Cherry shows
off nice rhythm chops.
Soul Tree is that kind of fundamentally solid,
guitar/organ/drums record that you’d expect from a seasoned hand like Ed
Cherry. You won’t go wrong here.
