Amazon.comTrumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell had a long creative relationship, beginning in Ornette Coleman's early quartets and continuing intermittently throughout their careers, including the excellent band Old and New Dreams. This 1982 session presents duets, solos, and mini-suites that reveal profound empathy and a shared interest in African and Mediterranean music, with an emphasis on rhythmic and melodic fundamentals carried throughout the CD. Cherry's pocket trumpet has a strong Spanish tinge on "Solidarity" and "El Corazón," while his piano is suitably Monkish on "Bemsha Swing." Blackwell's carefully tuned drums are an added melodic element, with his roots in New Orleans parade drumming showing on "Rhythm for Runner." His "Near-in" is an extended and hypnotic piece for wood drums, while Cherry's "Makondi" is complex percussion music that expands on repeated figures. The concluding "Voice of the Silence" is a strikingly solitary trumpet solo that's magnified by an eerie resonance. This is intimate and magical music making by two very resourceful artists. --Stuart Broomer