The Cherry Thing, album of Neneh Cherry and Scandinavian free jazz band The Thing was released last week.
Smalltown Records released the 9 songs album, most of whom are covers like Dirt by the hard-rock band The Stooges, Dream Baby Dream by the punk duo Suicide or rapper MF Doom‘s Accordion, as well as few original compositions by Cherry and Mats Gustaffson.
This album is considered Neneh Chery’s comeback after 16 years of absence from the pop charts, even though this artist participated in that time in numerous musical projects, away from mainstream. She collaborated with Tricky, MF Doom, Gorillaz and the band cirKus made of her husband Cameron McVey, daughter Lolita Moon and DJ Matt Karmill.
Neneh is the step daughter of free jazz pioneer Don Cherry. She spent most of her childhood on tour with him and the family, together with Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis and other great names of jazz. She started her solo career in 1989, her well known hits like Buffalo Stance marked the pop charts of the 90ies.
The Thing is a Scandinavian free jazz band established in 2000, and named after a composition of Don Cherry. It’s members are saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.
The Cherry Thing project has it’s world premiere at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival on Saturday, 30 June.