Berchidda

Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda. Fresu graduated from the Conservatory of Cagliari in 1984, in trumpet studies under Enzo Morandini, and attended the University of Musical and performing arts in Bologna. Fresu has taught at the Siena Jazz National Seminars, as well as jazz university courses in Terni, and is the director of Nuoro Jazz Seminars in Nuoro, Italy. Fresu composes music for theatre, poem, dance, radio, television, and film.

Indian-born percussionist Trilok Gurtu pays homage to avant-garde trumpeter Don Cherry with 2013's Spellbound. As a member of Cherry's band from 1976 to 1978, Gurtu experienced Cherry's cross-cultural approach to music firsthand, an approach that greatly influenced his own musical direction. Bookended by two tracks Gurtu recorded with Cherry prior to the pocket trumpeter's death in 1995, Spellbound picks up on Cherry's mix of groove-oriented sounds from Indian to Afro-Cuban music to funk, free jazz, classical, and ambient improvisation. Spellbound is an engaging, stylistically varied album that truly evokes the magic of Cherry's music.