This Monday’s (2/17) Deep Focus is on trumpeter Don Cherry, a wonderful and deeply missed friend of WKCR. Back in the Eighties, Don was a frequent guest on Mitch Goldman’s show. Don would guest DJ, talk to the audience, bring guests… It was an ongoing Eighties NYC Don Cherry party. And if there was a blank cassette handy, Mitch would make a recording. The tapes got tossed in a box and ended up deep in storage.
In January of 2024, Mitch and his guest, the bandleader, slide trumpeter, cultural historian, and raconteur Steven Bernstein blew the dust off of a few of the tapes and took their audience on a time travel journey beyond the imagination of Asimov or Butler. Like Mitch, Steven had also been a friend and adept of Cherry’s. On the tapes, they found their old friend to be knowing, passionate, deeply curious, and remarkably generous. He was generous to his guests with his attention and generous to his audience (which is to say, us) by considering them part of the conversation. And he does it all with an easy grace. It’s very much the way he played music.
Well, guess what? There are more of these tapes! This Monday (2/17) from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD or wkcr.org.
Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/. Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted. It’s ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial. We won’t even ask for your contact info.
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Photo credit: by Mitch Goldman 2024. All rights reserved.
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