Recorded in Copenhagen, prior to the creation of his defining Complete Communion album for Blue Note, Cherry Jam is a previously unreleased mid-1960s session (for Danmarks Radio) with cornet player Don Cherry leading a group of Danish musicians through a set of sturdily performed modern jazz compositions.

Opening track ‘The Ambassador From Greenland’ has Cherry to the fore, intricately weaving his free blowing style between the somewhat rigid opening riff before taking off into other streams of musical consciousness. This is followed by Richard Rogers' ‘You Took Advantage Of Me’, a ballad that is mostly played straight with Mogens Bollerup's mournful tenor solo and Atli Bjørn's laconic piano playing taking centre stage – only to be slapped awake by Cherry's perfectly timed blaring cornet intrusion that finishes the piece. Original Cherry composition ‘Priceless’ allows the group to stretch out into more adventurous musical territory, while the closing ‘Nigeria’ edges into a hard bop stance that is tinged with elements of swing and an Afro-Cuban styled rhythmic presence. As an audio snapshot of Cherry's early European years as a musician and bandleader, Cherry Jam (now released by Gearbox in the form of a ‘Japanese pressing’ after its Record Store Day debut last year) will agreeably suffice.

More surprising and necessary, however, is Om Shanti Om, music from a recently unearthed 1970s Italian television broadcast that delves deeper into Cherry's fascination with, and love of, what would eventually be recognised as ‘World Music’. Joined by percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, guitarist Gian Piero Pramaggiore and his wife Moki Cherry on tanpura, the hard-edged urban blast of 1960s modern jazz is replaced with a more meditational organic music groove where the assembled players become sonically entwined. Here vocal chant and percussion are utilised to form densely patterned layers of undulating rhythm, together with Pramaggiore's elongated acoustic guitar explorations where his instrument occasionally morphs into sounding like a sitar. For his part Cherry responds on pocket trumpet and flute, bending the notes of the latter instrument to catch the wind as Moki's droning tanpura and Vasconcelos' stinging tabla playing provide suitable spiritual accompaniment. Elsewhere he unconsciously evokes memories of Ennio Morricone's work for Italian film director Sergio Leone, his pocket trumpet solos leaning towards a mariachi style, with perhaps an appreciative nod towards Miles Davis' Sketches Of Spain furtively inserted for good measure.