About
About
F. Vattel Cherry (double bass, bass guitar, composer/arranger) was born in Chicago, grew up in Maryland, near DC, but calls himself a New Yorker. He says that’s where he "came of age.” He moved to New York in 1986 to attend the Manhattan School of Music. It was in New York, after graduating Cherry “cut his teeth” with: the Charles Gayle Trio, Charli Persip’s Superband, Miles Griffith, David Murray’s Big Band, David Pleasant’s RiddimAthon! and Cecil Taylor’s PTHONGOS. It was in New York that he also got married and became a father for the first time. In 1997 Cherry moved back to the Baltimore/Washington area of his youth (became a father for the second time) and performed and/or recorded with Paul Murphy, Joel Futterman, Brother Ah, John Tchicai and The Munucipal Opera Company of Baltimore among others. In 2002 he was awarded ‘Best Jazz Musician’ by the Baltimore City Paper. Cherry currently lives Burlington, NC and leads the Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra (see on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Reverbnation).
Cherry has appeared with various poet/writers: Nathaniel Mackey, Thomas Stanley, Hattie Gossett, Richard Bartee, Louis Reyes Rivera, Cheryl Byron and Layding Kaliba
Cherry's work with choregraphers includes collaborations with: Kwame A. Ross, Marlies Yearby & Viola Sheely (of the Urban Bush Women), Andrea E. Woods (of Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Co.), tap dancer Hank Smith and Julio Leitao (director of Batoto Yetu Children's Dance group).
In Arts Management, he has produced: Harmonic Baltimore Festival July 12-13 2002 (a two day avant-garde jazz festival at Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD). "More Than A Dream"- A celebration of the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. January 18, 2004 (A benefit for St. Veronica's Youth Steel Orchestra at the Theatre Project, Baltimore, MD)
As an educator he worked for numerous organizations including: The Performance Project (sponsored by Warner Music Group), ArtsConnection's Talent Beyond Words and
Young Talent Programs, Dancing in the Streets, The Brooklyn Children's Museum, American Museum of Natural History, I Am The Light Of The World,Young Audiences, Hospital Audiences, Lincoln Center's Colloquium on Jazz and Meet-the-Artist School Series (New York, NY)
Baltimore City Public School System, Patapsco High School for the Arts, Park School of Baltimore, Waldorf School of Baltimore, Music and Arts, Morgan State University
(Baltimore, MD) the University of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) Durham Public Schools (Durham, NC)
Professional Affiliations: American String Teachers Association International Society of Bassists