Neither the photography on the front and back jacket nor the title of Chris Cheek’s Keepers of the Eastern Door directly bespeak a jazz album, but are certainly intriguing. First, the title takes its name from the Mohawk people, the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy who had that name for their role as guardians against invasion from the colonizers. Metaphorically, this quartet becomes the “keepers.”
The album represents a reunion between Cheek and guitarist Bill Frisell, who had worked together in Paul Motian’s band. With Frisell in mind, Cheek invited one of the guitarist’s favorite bass-drum tandems, Tony Scherr and Rudy Royston, for this session, issued on the new analog-focused label Analog Tone Factory. The quartet recorded…
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