Don Cherry

A look at the life of Native American jazz saxophone pioneer Jim Pepper, the first widely recognized musician to fuse Native American music with jazz.

Moki and Don Cherry met in the mid-1960s and soon began collaborating closely. They made happenings, music, art, posters, and record sleeves; they performed together, organized workshops, and toured. The film merges the different worlds they lived in – countryside and city life, and the various disciplines that were interwoven in their artistic practices.

Between June 26 and 29, 1976, the sixth edition of the Festival of the Juvenile Proletariat took place at Parco Lambro in Milan, an event conceived by the countercultural magazine Re Nudo. The organizers invited Alberto Grifi to film those days filled with meetings, debates, and concerts, but not everything went as planned. This is the 58-minute version (from 27 hours of footage) edited by Grifi himself after the event.

Don Cherry walks around and plays music

A concert at the Golden Circle with Don Cherry and his quintet was filmed and then processed to an art movie using various optical effects.

Documentary filmed during the 1965 International Jazz Festival in Bologna, featuring appearances by musicians such as Gato Barbieri, Don Cherry, and Mal Waldron.

A cutout of a woman's silhouette is displayed in many locations while a free jazz soundtrack is heard. The jazz musicians later pose for the camera in a studio.

A 1976 television broadcast recorded at RAI studios [Rome, Italy]. Don Cherry - pocket trumpet, doussn'gouni, wooden flute, percussion, vocals, Nana Vasconcelos - tabla, berimbau, percussion, vocals, Moki Cherry - tambura, vocals, Giampiero Pramaggiore - guitar, flute, vocals

The Ornette Coleman Quartet performs lives in Barcelona in 1987.