ED CHERRY PERFORMS THURSDAY JULY 26 AT MAKEDA
(seven questions kept the integrity of the lower case letters used by ed)
NBJP: What living musician do you admire most? Why?
EC: my guitar instructor bruce johnson… completely unknown to the general public but new york musicians from my generation and just before me know him or have heard of him, a fantastic, creative guitarist, coming from a love of kenny burrell/grant green as well as free music, bruce could play it all (he’d recorded with chico hamilton and enrico rava as well as 2 LP’s under his own name and one duet recording w/rodney jones).I met him thru guitarist rodney jones who also studied with him…he set me straight on what I should be practicing, on dealing with people in the business, what to listen for in a musician, the importance of writing my own music and having my own voice on my instrument…as well as being aware of current events and being creative in other areas outside of music like art or poetry –things like this. all this before I moved to new york ..I was 20 or 21 when we met…one of the reasons I moved to nyc was to be closer to him and rodney and other creative people who could inspire me to be a better musician and person.
NBJP: You are a musician, is there another art in which you’d like to be accomplished?
EC: painting ..which I was never really that good at…writing, I always enjoyed writing little short stories or letters to friends,etc.. ..I would be a good critic, having been in the business of music and played with some really great musicians, I feel I would be qualified but I don’t want to criticize someone else’s art, I’ll keep my opinions to myself (or my closest friends,haha)..I’ve had some pretty negative things said about me when I was a young musician trying to do the best I could playing in dizzy’s band and other projects(as well as some really nice things that fed my soul). musician’s say they don’t care about reviews but everyone no matter who it is wants to be respected by their peers and have nice things said about them in print and the bad review can destroy a young musicians morale and possibly set him on a downward spiral if they are not strong and ignore what these guys say and just keep steppin’
NBJP: What’s your favorite (G-rated) guilty pleasure?
EC: desserts. anyone who really knows me knows I like cake, pie ..things like this…candy not so much…this is one of the reasons I have to keep going to the gym so I don’t blow up like a toad …hahaa..
NBJP: If you were about to have your last meal, what would it be?
EC: a dinner of hot buttered lobster rolls in a toasted hotdog bun ! being from new england ,that was always one of my favorite things to eat growing up..
NBJP: Who’s your favorite non-jazz composer?
EC: jimi hendrix
NBJP: Other than being a musician, what’s the best job you ever had?
EC: I’ve always played music for money since I was a kid..any other ‘job’ was always less than…
NBJP: Finish this sentence: If I can, I try to avoid
EC: negative people, music performance situations that won’t make me feel good at the end of the evening and….also…cake and pie…
PLUS ONE: When did you know that you wanted to be a professional jazz musician?
I just wanted to play music …starting with clarinet in my school band in 3rd grade(at first I wanted to be a sax player) to r&b bands on guitar in 6 and 7th grade.I loved blues and hendrix and many other rock players back in the day but tired of that and wanted know more about this music that my dad listened to religiously… so at around 17 or 18 I started going to jazz jam sessions in my hometown and loved what I heard and wanted to learn all about this musical language