Don Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on November 18, 1936. Cherry’s family moved to Los Angeles when he was quite young, and he was raised there. He started playing the trumpet in his early teens. In his late teens, he started playing professionally.

In the 1950’s he met Ornette Coleman in a record shop and the two started playing together. By 1958, Don Cherry had played on Ornette Coleman’s first album called The Music Of Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!! The two musicians became well-know in the free jazz movement.

Don Cherry introduced the pocket trumpet to the jazz scene. He lived much of his life in Europe and died in 1995 of liver failure due to complications from hepatitis.

Here’s a 1963 performance with Sonny Rollins.