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It's complete and total war, my friends...

Don Cherry is a unique figure in the history of American music. Known primarily as a trumpeter, cornetist, and pocket trumpet player, Cherry was also an accomplished composer, one of the first to seriously merge American jazz with music from other parts of the world. He also eventually became a player of many small instruments from around the world, most notably the Malian stringed instrument, the doussn'gouni. As a trumpeter, Cherry played with a poignant, understated melodicism and an intensely creative sense of line that made him a one-of-a-kind player in the history of jazz.

Ear training is the most valuable training for any musician, and maybe most of all for an improviser.

With so much noise in the air about what jazz music and musicians are becoming, there remains the crucial question: How do you teach/learn improvised music?

I'll be heading up into the mountains in about ten days, and these are the topics that visiting artists at the Banff Workshop will be presenting...