Desireless

07/28/1998 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Chris Morris

Genetics are a funny thing. Eagle-Eye's old man, the late trumpeter Don Cherry, was a premier free-jazz blower who took up a heavy world-music bent late in his career; E-E's sis Neneh has worked the jazz-punk and dance extremities of the musical spectrum. So you might think the latest member of the Cherry family would undertake an experimental path, right? Wrong-o, boy-o. Eagle-Eye purveys a fairly straight-up-the-middle brand of slightly rocked-up singer-songwriterly fodder--it isn't offensive or tepid, but it isn't especially revelatory, either. Only on the last track of the album, when Cherry sits down at the piano, reaches into Pappy's songbag, and comes up with a graceful six-minute version of Don's "Desireless," does the music really begin to crackle with some unexpected excitement. Methinks this young man should pull down the family album(s) more often.