# 2 Donald Ross Cherry (January 11, 1924 – April 4, 2018) was an American traditional pop music and big band singer and former amateur and professional golfer. In music, he is best known for his 1955 hit "Band of Gold".
Cherry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. He started as a big band singer in the orchestras of Jan Garber and Victor Young. In 1951 he recorded his first solo hits, "Thinking of You" and "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle". In 1955 came his biggest hit, "Band of Gold", which reached #5 on the Billboard chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at #6 in the UK Singles Chart. He had three more hits in 1956 ("Wild Cherry", "Ghost Town" and "Namely You"), all backed by orchestra leader Ray Conniff. He was also the voice of the Mr. Clean commercials during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Cherry published his biography, Cherry's Jubilee, with co-writer Neil Daniels He is a good friend of Willie Nelson and has collaborated on three albums with him, Augusta (1995), The Eyes of Texas (2002), and It's Magic (2007). Cherry was married four times, once to 1956 Miss America Sharon Ritchie, before wedding his present wife, Francine Bond Smith, in 1993. They live in Las Vegas, Nevada. His son, Stephen, was a casualty of the 9/11 attacks when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower. Stephen left behind four sons.
#1 Don Cherry Biography from the Musician Guide website:
Born November 18, 1936, in Oklahoma City, OK; father was a bartender/club manager and trumpet player; wife's name, Moki (an artist); children: Eagle-Eye (son), Nenah (stepdaughter). Education: Attended School of Jazz, Lenox, MA, 1959. Played in Samuel Brown's jazz band, Los Angeles, 1951; led the Jazz Messiahs, c. 1952; toured West Coast and Canada with James Clay; played with Ornette Coleman, beginning in 1953; performed at Five Spot Cafe, New York City, 1959-61; played with Sonny Rollins, 1961; co-founded New York Contemporary Five, c. 1962; toured Europe, 1963; co-led band with Gato Barbieri, 1964-66; member of quartet Old and New Dreams Band, beginning in the late 1970s; formed Codona, 1978; performed in jazz opera Cosmopolitan Greetings, Hamburg, West Germany, 1989; toured with quartet MultiKulti, beginning in 1990; performed with Hieroglyphics Ensemble big band, early 1990s. Teacher at Dartmouth College, 1970. Addresses: Home-- San Francisco, CA. Management-- The Brad Simon Organization, Inc., 122 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022.
By the late 1980s, through the efforts of pop stars like Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, and David Byrne, the musical expressions of peoples as far-flung as South Africa, Brazil, and Bulgaria had begun to meld with Western styles to create what has become known as "world music" or "world beat." But jazz trumpeter and cornet player Don Cherry had become immersed in these unusual outpourings almost two decades earlier, traversing the planet in search of ever more exotic sounds, pursuing what he has called "the fun of endless learning." In fact, the nomadic Cherry is regularly referred to as "the musical Marco Polo."
As a trumpeter and veteran of jazz's front lines, Cherry has lent his personal sound and lyricism to groundbreaking work by musicians as diverse as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Gato Barbieri, and Lou Reed. As a teacher, Cherry's students have included, according to his press biography, "Dartmouth [College] upperclassmen, Middle Eastern goatherders, teenagers at a Swedish music camp, and grammar-school children at the Storefront School in [New York City's] Harlem." The trumpet innovator has studied music in Morocco, India, Eastern Europe, and Sweden. And his "acoustic expeditions" throughout the underdeveloped quarters of the Earth are renowned.
Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on November 18, 1936, the grandson of a Choctaw Indian. He moved with his parents to the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1940, when he was four years old. Back in Oklahoma, Cherry's father, a trumpet player, had overseen the Cherry Blossom Jazz Club; in Los Angeles, the elder Cherry continued to play the trumpet and became involved with the then-flourishing Central Avenue jazz scene. His son was also enchanted by music and took piano lessons before starting trumpet in junior high school.
Cherry's high school music teacher and private tutor was Samuel Brown, who also instructed saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Wardell Gray, trumpeter Art Farmer, and pianist Hampton Hawes. Cherry would skip school to absorb the wisdom of radio tastemaker Johnny Otis and to catch performances by jazz greats Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Los Angeles native Dexter Gordon when they were playing nearby. At the age of 15, his truancy in full flower, Cherry began playing with an impressive jazz band led by Brown at neighboring Jefferson High School. At one point during high school, he led his own group, the Jazz Messiahs. Cherry even gigged with local professionals, including Gordon on occasion; by then he was proficient on the trumpet and piano and could compose as well.
As his high-school career progressed, Cherry's musical instincts began to develop and became more eclectic; he loved bebop, the early rock and roll of the Platters, and the Afro-Cuban sounds brought back to Los Angeles from south of the border by the merchant marine. It was during this seminal time in Cherry's development that he was introduced to saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
Cherry had just returned from a tour of the West Coast and Canada with Texas saxophonist James Clay. At the age of 17, he met Coleman, with whom he would have a long and fruitful association, in a Watts record store. Coleman had been generating quite a bit of controversy with his decidedly different approach to jazz improvisation. Cherry's preferred instrument at the time was a high-pitched pocket cornet. The young player's inclusive, experimental approach to his craft enabled him to enthusiastically embrace the style becoming known as free-form jazz.
In 1959 he spent a summer with Coleman at the School of Jazz in Lenox, Massachusetts; later Coleman's quartet, with Cherry on board, began its legendary engagement at New York City's Five Spot Cafe, which brought international attention and interest to the band. Releasing improvisation from the established chordal specifications of bebop, the quartet would ultimately exert a profound influence on the contemporary music that followed. In those early years of the "free-jazz" movement, Cherry's strong, wiry tone and rhythmically elastic phrasing rendered him an apt foil for Coleman. He developed an assortment of vocalized sounds, producing expressive squeals and split notes on both cornet and pocket trumpet.
After appearing on Coleman's first seven records, Cherry left the visionary saxman's group in 1961. He spent the following eight months playing with saxophonist Sonny Rollins. Over the next few years, Cherry worked with John Coltrane, Steve Lacy, and George Russell. He also co-founded a group called the New York Contemporary Five with saxophonists Archie Shepp and John Tchicai. In 1963, Cherry toured Europe with Albert Ayler and Shepp and met Argentine tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri. Soon he was recording with Barbieri.
The full emergence of Cherry from Ornette Coleman's shadow was evidenced in 1965 on his collabortion with Barbieri on Blue Note Records' Complete Communion. Cherry's compositions are continuous, multithematic pieces reflecting a versatile, assertive, and creative improviser. From 1964 to 1966, Cherry co-led a European band with Barbieri.
In the late 1960s, Cherry began to explore the music of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Indonesia. On 1968's Eternal Rhythm, Cherry played native wind and percussion instruments to create novel sounds. His direction was a marked departure from the free-jazz of that era.
After teaching at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College in 1970, Cherry and his family--he is the father of rap-soul artist Neneh Cherry and an actor-drummer son named Eagle-Eye--lived in Sweden until 1975, residing in an art school he had purchased there. After leaving Scandinavia, the family explored Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, traveling by camper. All the while Cherry gave casual concerts and jammed with the locals. "I didn't have any jobs lined up when I went," he revealed in his press biography, "I just went, and that's the way to do it if you're going to meet all the musicians and learn melodies and rhythms--if you're going to see all there is to see."
In the late 1970s, Cherry reunited with three former Coleman sidemen--Dewey Redman, Ed Blackwell, and Charlie Haden--to form the Old and New Dreams Band. The quartet labored to preserve and perpetuate the musical vision of their august former leader. Cherry formed an ensemble called Codona in 1978 with multi-instrumentalists Collin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos. Codona specialized in a kaleidoscope of ethnic musics. Cherry sang and played piano, organ, melodica, wooden flutes, and a Malian hunter's guitar called the doussn'gouni. He continued to canvass the vast horizon of global music throughout the 1980s. His interests led him to compose extraordinary pieces, many of a solemn and ritualistic complexion.
In 1989, in Hamburg, West Germany, Cherry participated in the premiere production of avant-garde theater impresario Robert Wilson's jazz opera Cosmopolitan Greetings. Also that year, Rolling Stone named Cherry's Art Deco record of the year. In 1991, the artist received two San Francisco Bay Area Music Awards for his album MultiKulti, its title a play on the word multicultural. By then Cherry had become a Bay Area resident. According to his press bio, Cherry was also honored when New York City's jazz station WKCR-FM aired his work for an entire week, broadcasting over 100 hours of recordings, interviews, and commentary dating from 1959.
In 1990, Cherry hit the road with another quartet, also called MultiKulti, bringing his unique "gumbo" to, and undoubtedly borrowing from, locales from Spain to Japan. He was also performing then with his Hieroglyphics Ensemble big band, which had lent a hand to the MultiKulti sessions. "It's a great time in music right now," Cherry told Detroit Free Press contributor W. Kim Heron at the time, "whether they call it global music, world music, world beat, whatever. I just call it multikulti." Of the trumpet player's universal oeuvre Heron wrote, "Cherry's albums have been like so many postcards mailed home from an incredible musical journey."
Don Cherry's Career and Awards
Bay Area Music awards for outstanding jazz album, for MultiKulti, and outstanding reeds/brass player, both 1991.
Don Cherry's Discography
* Selective Works
* The Shape of Jazz to Come Atlantic, 1961.
* Free Jazz Atlantic, 1962.
* Complete Communion Blue Note, 1965.
* Symphony for Improvisers Blue Note, 1966.
* Where Is Brooklyn? Blue Note, 1966.
* Eternal Rhythm BASF, 1968.
* Human Music Flying Dutchman, 1970.
* Old and New Dreams ECM, 1970.
* Codona ECM, 1979.
* Art Deco A&M, 1989.
* MultiKulti A&M, 1991.
* Complete Blue Note Recordings of Don Cherry Mosaic, 1993.
Further Reading and Sources
* Boston Globe, March 16, 1990.
* CMJ New Music Report, November 9, 1990.
* Detroit Free Press, August 17, 1990.
* Downbeat, December 1990; February 1993.
* News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 26, 1991.
* New Statesman, October 16, 1987.
* Newsweek, August 28, 1989.
* People, January 22, 1990.
* Rolling Stone, December 14, 1989; May 2, 1991.
* Stereo Review, February 1990.
* Windplayer, Volume 9, Number 3.
* Wire, September 1990.
* Additional information for this profile was provided by a Brad Simon Organization press biography, 1991.
* --B. Kimberly Taylor
see website
For You
Don Cherry Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I hope you do believe me
I'll give you my heart
I love you, and you alone were meant for me
Please give your loving heart to me
And say we'll never part
Dream of you every night
Darling, I'm never lonely
Whenever you are in sight
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
I love you for sentimental reasons
I hope you do believe me
I've given you my heart
The lyrics to Don Cherry's "I Love You Drops" express a deep and abiding love for another person. The singer declares his love for his partner for "sentimental reasons," a phrase that suggests a love that is more emotional than logical. He hopes that his partner believes him and promises to give them his heart. The singer believes that his partner is meant for him alone and pleads with them to give him their heart in return, promising that they will never part.
The singer's devotion to his partner is all-consuming. He thinks of them every morning and dreams of them every night. He is never lonely whenever his partner is in sight, suggesting that being with them is all he needs to feel complete. The repetition of the chorus, "I love you for sentimental reasons/I hope you do believe me/I've given you my heart," underscores the sincerity and depth of the singer's love.
Overall, "I Love You Drops" is a beautiful expression of love that is both passionate and tender. It captures the intense feelings that come with falling deeply in love with someone and the desire to give oneself completely to another person.
Line by Line Meaning
I love you for sentimental reasons
I have developed deep feelings for you based on emotions and memories
I hope you do believe me
I trust and wish you have faith in my feelings for you
I'll give you my heart
I want to share my whole being with you and be committed fully to our relationship
I love you, and you alone were meant for me
I have a strong belief that we are meant to be together and no one else can replace you
Please give your loving heart to me
I hope you can open up to me and express your own feelings, so we can grow our relationship
And say we'll never part
I want to make a promise to always be together and never break up or separate
I think of you every morning
You are the first thought that comes to my mind upon waking up and starting my day
Dream of you every night
You constantly appear in my fantasies and subconscious thoughts when I'm asleep
Darling, I'm never lonely
As long as we have each other, I feel complete and never alone
Whenever you are in sight
Your mere presence brings joy and comfort to me
I hope you do believe me
I want to reiterate my sincerity and truthfulness in my love for you
I've given you my heart
I have devoted my whole heart and soul to you, and I hope you can reciprocate my love
Lyrics © CONSALAD CO., Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: William Best, Deek Watson
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
R P
In regards to the Don Cherry debate, I agree he shouldn't have been fired. I wanted him to be given an opportunity to clarify what he meant (if, he felt he needed to since there was so many people that were divided amongst their interpretation of his comments).
However, later it was reported that he was given the opportunity to go on the air to apologize but he refused and reiterated that he meant what he said and then they fired him. Then Don Cherry stated after the firing that he should have said "everyone" instead of "you people" which could have changed the way his comments were being perceived.
Furthermore, one thing that everyone agrees on is it's obvious that Don Cherry was talking about immigrants in his rant when he said "you people come here." So here are my questions and as a reminder, here's what was exactly stated by him:
"you people come here, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you could pay a couple of bucks for a poppy,"
So my questions to everyone who thinks people are being too sensitive and argue that he's making a valid point are:
How did Don Cherry know who is an immigrant just by looking at them while walking down the street when he saw people not wearing poppies?
Can you walk down the street and see Caucasian people and decipher if they are immigrants just by looking at them?
Do ALL immigrants that you can identify as an immigrant just by looking at them not wear a poppy? Every single one of them?
Are there never ever any Caucasian people that don't wear a poppy while walking down the street? Not one Caucasian person?
The truth is, we all know exactly what Don Cherry was talking about and most of us agree with him in regards to the wearing a poppy and buying one to support the veterans part; but please don't hide the fact that his comments were directed towards immigrants of colour because that denial is where the real harm to society stems from.
Fademasterfade
I don't agree with Don on everything he says but he speaks his mind and I respect him for that. Sadly we're becoming a society where more and more there's only one side allowed to express their opinions. And yes, everyone should wear a poppy to show respect for soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.
Nubian Queen
Here in UK, did you know that Zimbabwe of all countries was declined to participate in celebrations, the reasons is about Human rights in the country. How do I feel personally considering I have so many great uncles and two uncles who perished in the world war two under commonwealth countries. So why should I wear a poppy if I can not honour my family.
Nubian Queen
This Guy I am not English, read my comment. I think I mentioned Zimbabwe
Nubian Queen
This Guy and what do you mean my English is rubbish???, but you understood me right??????
Derrick2shot
Im uploading a video on this atm, and what I should have added in it more was the comments. It's strange that on Twitter it seems almost everyone is angry with Don, but on Youtube it's the other way around so far I notice.
Cyrus' guitar and lift
My parents are both legal immigrants in Canada (Persian and Armenian) and they 100% agree with Cherry's statements.
Cherry is not being racist here. He's talking in a general sense (referring to everybody around the world outside of Canada) that takes our values for granted and don't show respect back to the country that helps them thrive.
He never singled any individual group out.
The whole backlash is an overreaction.
Bottom line: Respect those who sacrificed their well-being and lives to make sure we aren't attacked by our enemies.
I have a poppy in my room that stays there 365 days a year and damn proud of it.
Kyle Gallant
Finally someone with some common sense. Thank you!!!
Nocturnal1453.
He’s talking about your fellow Iranian and Arab buddies who come here and disrespect Canada .
Transportation Land
@Nocturnal1453. Who's "fellow"
BA
@Nocturnal1453. so i guess we’re not your fellow buddies buddy lol