Blank Forms Journal 6: Organic Music Societies

Blank Forms

 

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The sixth journal from Blank Forms Editions presents archival documents and new writings on the intermedia collaborations of avant-garde jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and textile artist Moki Cherry

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Don Cherry and Moki Karlsson met in Sweden in the late '60s. They married and began to perform together, dubbing their mix of communal art, social and environmental activism, children's education and pan-ethnic expression "Organic Music." Their home in Tågarp became a locus of artistic production, attracting free-spirited musicians, poets, actors and artists with the promise of collective life. There, Keith Knox assembled Tågarp Publication Number One to document the collectivistic practices blooming under the Cherrys' guidance. Reproduced here, the text includes interviews with Terry Riley and Cherry, a piece on Pandit Pran Nath, a report on the Bombay Free School and a survey of the esoteric Forest University by Bengt af Klintberg.

This book explores Don Cherry's work of the period through additional interviews by Knox, a piece on his Relativity Suite and an essay by Fumi Okiji. Moki Cherry's writings on her workshops are featured alongside full-color reproductions of her tapestries, used as performance environments by Don Cherry's ensembles. Cherry collaborators Bengt Berger and Christer Bothén contribute travelogues from the era.

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Edited by Lawrence Kumpf, Naima Karlsson, Magnus Nygren.

Introduction by Lawrence Kumpf, Magnus Nygren.

Text by Keith Knox, Rita Knox, Bengt af Klintberg, Iris R. Orton, Åke Holmquist, Pandit Pran Nath, John Esam, Michael Lindfield, Sidsel Paaske, George Trolin, Alan Halkyard, Moki Cherry, Don Cherry, Ben Young, Christer Bothén, Bengt Berger, Fumi Okiji.

Interviews by Keith Knox & Rita Knox with Don Cherry, Terry Riley, Steve Roney.

Blank Forms Editions, April 2021

Hardback Edition

6 x 8 inches

496 pages

138 Color and 86 B&W images