# CD review: Ed Cherry – Are We There Yet? 2023: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/01/13/cd-review-ed-cherry-are-we-there-yet-2023-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2023-01-13T00:04:27+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ed Cherry moved to New York in 1978 to play guitar
with Dizzy Gillespie from ’78-’92 recorded and performed in Gillespie’s quartet.
He has collaborated with Henry Threadgill, Roy Hargrove, Lonnie Smith, John Patton
and many others. **

He has released 5 albums a leader and countless others with various musicians. His
latest brings a hip, melodic approach that is a refreshing contrast to guitarists
who frequently resort to playing ‘finger music’. This 10-track recording is a continuation
and salute to Cherry’s influences and mentors in music.

Here’s what Andrew Scott describes in the album liner notes:

In debates between Kenneth Miller, Richard Dawkins, and the late Stephen Jay Gould,
the “stay in your lane” boundaries that separate science from theology/philosophy
become particularly porous, revealing the frequency with which individuals intellectually“
drift” in order to hold onto seemingly contradictory opinions of truth (empirical,
scientific) and belief.

Jazz, no less an ideology, has also become “defined” through a series of maxims (“
must swing,” “must contain the blues,” “must prefigure improvisation”) that while
articulating general truisms perhaps, lay the groundwork for the exceptions that
prove the rule. And while no less a philosopher than Duke Ellington once issued 
the aphorism: “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” jazz is widely
accepted to be a “big tent” music, encompassing a broad spectrum of musical beliefs
and truths. Whether it is a truth or a belief (or possibly both?) that jazz must
contain elements of the blues, what is certain is that the expressive possibilities
of the blues to enliven a performance and bring an emotive quality to all music 
figures centrally in the wonderful playing of guitarist Ed Cherry.

“My first love was the blues,” recalls Cherry from his New York apartment. “I was
drawn to it at a young age when I fell in love with the music of Buddy Guy, Muddy
Waters, Albert King, Freddie King…all the Kings actually, and their offspring.”

Cherry, who still describes himself as a “blues guy,” never strayed far from this
initial inspiration. Listen, for example, to “Are We There Yet.” Here, Cherry’s 
deep understanding of the blues coalesces nicely with his rhythmic looseness and
omnipresent swing that channels both Charlie Parker (another influence whom Cherry
suggests “sounded best when playing the blues”) and Grant Green, most notably the
latter’s work with organists Big John Patton, Larry Young and “Baby Face” Willette.

“The sound of great organ playing has also always stuck with me,” elaborates Cherry,“
because when I first got into jazz in New Haven, Connecticut, there were two unsung
brothers, Bobby and Eddie Buster, both organ players, who welcomed me in and took
the time to show me things and teach me tunes.”

Perhaps because of this formative experience, the “OGD” (organ, guitar, drums) classic
pairing has remained central to Cherry’s music in both the aggregation of his working
band (Kyle Koehler and Byron Landham) and this recording.

“Basically, these tunes are what this band plays live,” states Cherry, who participated
in a few recordings as a side person for Cellar Music before, in his words, “stepping
up” do his own session. “Additionally, I’ve always wanted to blend organ with vibraphone,”
referencing Larry Young and Bobby Hutcherson’s contributions to the great Grant 
Green recording, Street of Dreams. An excellent decision! Enter Cherry’s long-time
colleague Monte Croft, whose crystalline sound, and melodic contributions on, among
other tracks, “Jean Pauline” (an original composition penned for Cherry’s daughters)
add much to the swinging trio, lifting this already outstanding band to even greater
musical heights.

Returning momentarily to the aforementioned truth vs. belief debate, Cherry, articulating
an aphorism of his own, suggests that “everyone should have their own sound, which
matures with age.” And while the perennially youthful Cherry numbers now as an NYC
jazz scene stalwart (having arrived here in 1978), mentoring guitar students enthusiastic
to draw upon his lived experience and sage advice, his is a maturity not measured
in coffee spoons (to riff off J. Alfred Prufrock), but in tone, taste and, to again
quote Duke Ellington, the “feeling” of jazz that he so beautifully brings to this
fine recording here.

**Ed Cherry – guitar**
 **Monty Croft – vibraphone** **Kyle Kohler – Hammond B3 
organ** **Byron ‘Wookie’ Landham – drums**

![](https://i0.wp.com/f4.bcbits.com/img/a3128856034_16.jpg?resize=640%2C640&ssl=
1)

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