| Relativity Suite | ||||
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| Studio album by
Don Cherry and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
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| Released | 1973 (1973) | |||
| Recorded | February 14, 1973 | |||
| Studio | Blue Rock Studio, New York | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 33:22 | |||
| Label | JCOA | |||
| Producer | Don Cherry, Jazz Composer's Orchestra | |||
| Jazz Composer's Orchestra chronology | ||||
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| Don Cherry chronology | ||||
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Relativity Suite is a free-jazz LPbyDon CherryonJazz Composer's Orchestra Records which was released in 1973.
Having appeared on the first two JCOA records by Michael Mantler and Carla Bley, Cherry was commissioned to write the third one in 1970. He used many of the same musicians who contributed to the first two records and molded into a suite a string of the pieces he'd been composing and performing in the previous few years. Studying with Pandit Pran Nath, Cherry was increasingly using Indian karnatic singing in his recordings and concerts and he starts the album with a similarly derived chant."[1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [3] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+[4] |
Jazz critic Scott Yanow wrote: "Highlights include Selene Fung's lovely work on the guzheng, a Chinese koto-like instrument, and Ed Blackwell's exuberant New Orleans marching patterns on the concluding number. While not as breathtaking or cohesive as his Eternal Rhythm, Relativity Suite almost matches that release in its first half and contains many a worthwhile joy."[5]
In a New York Times review of a live performance preceding the recording session, John S. Wilson described the music as "a mixture of charming, folklike melodies with a distinctly African tinge, of strong, compelling rhythms and, as occasional counter point, excursions into the clamorous, shrieking fury characteristic of avant-garde jazz." He stated: "The work itself and Mr. Cherry's conception of its presentation are so kaleidoscopic that a single hearing is simply an introduction to the materials used. It is music that can, and should, be heard repeatedly, not only for the variations that Mr. Cherry develops from performance to performance, but also for the rich lode of lyrical beauty and rhythmic stimulation with which he has filled it."[6]
Writing for The Free Jazz Collective, Stef Gijssels noted that, with Relativity Suite, "Instrumental perfection and precision were not [Cherry's] primary focus, but rather the creation of a sonic universe that was new, global, inclusive with the ambition to create something universal and spiritual, not imposed out of some cerebral and abstract concept, but grown organically from the already existing sounds of many cultures."[7]
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| Studio albums |
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| with Old and New Dreams |
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| with Codona |
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| with New York Contemporary Five |
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| Studio albums |
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| Live albums |
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| Related |
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