A thousand threads A memoir

Neneh Cherry was never under the radar. Born in Sweden in 1964, she was raised by her Swedish mother, Moki, a daringly creative young textile artist, and her father, Don Cherry, the renowned African American jazz musician, in a highly conspicuous mixed-race family who turned an old schoolhouse into a home and arts center. Moki eventually tells Neneh that her biological father is actually a musician from Sierra Leone, further extending her heritage. As she chronicles her remarkably adventurous and music-propelled life, Neneh traces the influence of her three cultures as she lives in Sweden, New York, and London, with sojourns in Los Angeles, Sierra Leone, and Spain, each place deepening her worldview and artistic sensibility. She drops out of school and performs with the punk band, the Slits, which leads to many other collaborations as she hits it big as a trailblazing singer-songwriter while becoming the mother of three daughters. Forthright and captivating, Cherry keenly illuminates a broad and colorful swath of music history, from jazz to reggae, punk, and her children's careers, while celebrating music's spiritual power and "boundless" womanhood.

In this likable if routine autobiography, singer-songwriter Cherry (born Neneh Karlsson) pays tribute to the music that shaped her. Shortly after Cherry was born in 1964 Sweden, her parents split up, and her mother, Moki, started dating jazz musician Don Cherry. The three moved to Vermont, then New York City, where a young Cherry met Don's famous friends, including Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane, who inspired her to begin "properly listening to records." Much of the account focuses on the music that soundtracked Cherry's coming-of-age: Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life when her family moved to L.A. and she began to embrace her Blackness; Poly Styrene when she decamped for London and fell in love with punk. Other sections focus on the writing and recording of Cherry's breakthrough album, Raw Like Sushi, and her marriages to drummer Bruce Smith and singer Cameron McVey. Throughout, Cherry remains a passionate, openhearted guide, though her insights into songwriting ("It's an almost meditative space we can visit to release what needs to be released") will be familiar to readers well versed in music memoirs. Still, Cherry's admirers will enjoy this intimate dispatch. Photos. Agent: Claire Patterson Conrad, Janklow & Nesbit U.K. (Oct.)