Charlie haden

[RETSAMPALS]

Does anybody know Charlie Haden of Quartet West? i just saw a his concert and it was really good!

[Francois Blais]

Yeah, Charlie is a very good musician.
He's also the leader of the Liberation Music Orchestra.
He has recorded a lot of records, under his own name and with many other people. (with Pat Metheny for instance)
He was part of the legendary sessions with Ornette Coleman; "Free Jazz", (a double-quartet which also featured Scott Lafaro), "The shape of jazz to come", etc.

[RETSAMPALS]

cool yeah bought some of his records and he signed my bass hehe

[Christopher]

It's all good! No flashy chops, just great music. As far as the Quartet West albums go, I like "Haunted Heart" the best. The others have so many grafts from period recordings, they start to sound like the aural equivalent of "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." Haden's latest, "The Art of Song," is pretty, but the spotlight seems to be on the vocalists and string section than the quartet itself.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

If you want to hear his playing in an "exposed" (sonically, that is...) setting, check out his live duo recording "Night and the City" with Kenny Barron. If you are into chops and licks, you'll hate it (although Kenny has chops to spare), but if you like good time, tasteful playing, and simple, melodic solos, you might just fall in love.

[Mark Steel]

The Charlie Haden/Hank Jones recording "Steal Away" is also very good. Piano/bass versions of spirituals, hymns and folk songs with some great solos by Haden.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

How nice it is to hear someone say of a bass player who doesn't strut chops all over the place, "absolutely burning"! This sort of description - of tasteful playing as "burning" - needs to happen more, and I think we all need to applaud the creator of the last post for it. ALL HAIL ED FUQUA!....um, no, wait.......that one's taken..... how 'bout, NICE GOING, ED!...or HEIL FUQUA!.....or something like that...no offense Ed, I'm just jealous because you got to go to that master class.

One of my (graduated) piano students was there at the Iridium watching the duo, and later (after the CD came out) made the remark to me that Kenny sounded fantastic, but she couldn't really remember much about how Charlie played. My response, after hearing the recording, was something like, "DUH!....and WHY do you think Kenny sounded so fantastic?" Maybe because Charlie made it his mission to accompany so well?....

BTW, I think the trio record you are thinking of is "Wanton Spirit", which is my second favorite KB recording after "Green Chimneys".

[Edited by Chris Fitzgerald on 11-27-2000 at 01:01 PM]

[olivier]

Maybe in the late 70's Charlie put out a record of four duets (bass + ...) which was really nice (too bad my turntable is in the basement since the belt broke). I don't know if it has been released on CD.
Speaking also of burning I think the sessions with Old and New Dreams were the fire from outter space, IMH2.5yO.

[brianrost]

Originally posted by olivier
Maybe in the late 70's Charlie put out a record of four duets (bass + ...) which was really nice (too bad my turntable is in the basement since the belt broke). I don't know if it has been released on CD.

There were two duet LPs on the A&M/Horizon label, one was called "Closeness" and the other "The Golden Number". Both were reissued on CD in the US but are now out of print (I was able to find the latter as a cutout). They are still in print in Europe but very expensive to buy as imports.

Charlie seems to really like doing duet albums, he has done quite a few. I have the Hank Jones and Kenny Barron ones already mentioned, also Pat Metheny, Ornette Coleman, Carlos Parades (a Portuguese guitarist)...there's probably some more I don't even know about.

He's also willing to play with just about anybody if he thinks the music is good, in recent years he's recorded with Cream drummer Ginger Baker and bluesman James Cotton. I once saw him on TV backing up indie rocker Nick Cave!!!

[Don Higdon]

You guys are pushing me...

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Does anybody else smell something burning? It has to be either Charlie's playing, or....uh....hmmm, either way, I'm putting on my safety goggles just in case...

[Christopher]

Charlie Haden gets a lot of ins with the indie/alterna crowd, thanks to his son Josh, the vocalist for Spain.

No one's (explicitly) mentioned "Under the Missouri Sky" or "Song X," either, so I'll just go ahead and plug those.

[Bruce Lindfield]

I've played the Charlie Haden tune "Silence" a few times at Jazz Workshops locally and our tutor has released a very nice version of this - it doesn't seem like the sort of tune a bass player would write - don't know why I say that but is this typical of his writing?