Chris Cheek - Keepers of the Eastern Door (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

As European settlers moved westward from the Atlantic coast of North America, the Mohawk people – the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy – became known as “Keepers of the Eastern Door” for their role as guardians against invasion from the encroaching colonizers.

The outcome of that battle may seem inevitable from the historical perspective, but the tension at its heart, between those who respect and live in harmony with the land and those who view the Earth from a more rapacious perspective, persists. In “The Kutenai Duck Hunter,” the image by photographer and ethnologist Edward Curtis that graces the cover of his breathtaking new album, Keepers of the Eastern Door, acclaimed saxophonist and composer Chris Cheek sees those two parallel mindsets represented in the reflection of a canoe in the river as its occupant looks to the horizon – and an uncertain future.

These ideas lend richness and depth to Cheek’s stunning music throughout Keepers of the Eastern Door, out May 23, 2025 via Analog Tone Factory. The album features a remarkable all-star quartet, with Cheek joined by revered guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Rudy Royston for a wide-ranging but harmonious repertoire including captivating originals and covers by everyone from The Beatles to Henry Purcell, Olivier Messiaen to Henry Mancini.

The idea for Keepers of the Eastern Door was born when Cheek was fascinated by another Curtis photograph, featuring a line of Native Americans on horseback dwarfed by the rock formations of Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly, at the St. Louis Art Museum. Cheek had grown up in the city, enjoying nature with his family. He realized that the same year that the sepia-tinged photo had been taken, the building in which he was viewing it had been built for the 1904 World’s Fair, aka the Louisiana Purchase Exposition – a celebration of the massive land acquisition that doubled the size of the United States.

TRACKLIST

1 Kino's Canoe
2 Smoke Rings
3 O Sacrum Convivium!
4 On A Clear Day
5 Lost Is My Quiet
6 From Me To You
7 Keepers Of The Eastern Door
8 Go On, Dear



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