Don Cherry made his mark as Ornette Coleman‘s trumpet “twin,” continuing in the avant sphere the sax-trumpet front-line tradition established by beboppers Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. But his most potent contribution was incorporating African and other world musics into the improvisational landscape, a process — begun elsewhere by Randy Weston and Yusef Lateef — that flourished in L.A. thanks to the inspiration Cherry sparked in Horace Tapscott, Adam Rudolph and other musicians, including his son, David Ornette Cherry.
LA Creators
LA Creators: Horace Tapscott
Arrived Los Angeles 1943, died here 1999
LA Creators: Charlie Haden
Arrived Los Angeles 1957, died here 2014.
LA Creators: Charles Mingus
Raised from infancy in Los Angeles, left 1949, died 1979.
LA Creators: Eric Dolphy
Born in Los Angeles 1928, left 1960, died 1964.