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Eternal Rhythm
Capturing a performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival in November of 1968, this live set teeters indelibly between dream and madness. In addition to his pocket cornet, Cherry also breathes through bamboo, metal, and plastic flutes and plays the chiming timbre of the saron, one of many Javanese gamelan instruments deployed by this octet. Rather than simply approximate the sound of a gamelan, they become curious percussive elements instead, which drift into pastoral flute solos, swinging jazz ensemble passages, and then veering back into bewildering terrain. But the true X-factor here is the presence of free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock, strafing the proceedings with scabrous runs and feedback outbursts. A white-knuckle ride into the eternal unknown.
