Charlie Haden in June Bass Player Magazine

[RSalvador]

I have to admit I've never followed or listened much to Charlie Haden. For some reason, from quotes I read in years past, I had the impression he was somewhat of an A hole. Well, that was sure wrong. Being from the very area he is from I'm guess I'm ashamed I haven't taken more of an interest in the man.

I'm glad I was set straight by Bass Player editor Bill Leigh, who published the conversation between Charlie and punk rock bassist Flea as they did a photo shoot endorsing Gallean-Kruger amps.

Charlie is an incredible person with a tremendous amount to offer. I was impressed with his love for music and respect he showed for someone like Flea from the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Flea impressed me too for much of the same reason.

This is an excellent article an BP is to be commented. I guess it wasn't even an article as much as some good journalism on the part of BP for being there to see what would happen when these two got together.

I feel much better about my subscription now.

Rick

[lyle]

I picked up his, latest liberation orchastra cd and its amazing. His solo in amazing grace is beautiful to say the least.

[Aaron Saunders]

..."punk rock bass player?"

Now, I'm not even going to compare Haden's work with anything from RHCP, but they're really not THAT far apart -- Flea's father was a jazz musician, and Flea himself sat in on his father's jam sessions on trumpet at a very early age and has had at least an informal education in jazz music. Not to mention that even though he's clearly never made it a serious pursuit, Flea does have some rudimentary DB skills as well.

I'd find this more surprising if he had a similar conversation with someone who actually plays "punk rock" bass.

[RSalvador]

Your right he is not much into punk now, all you say about Flea is true, but he was a punk rock player first and I don't think he is ashamed of it. Also spending his early years playing punk I think has helped him develop some killer chops that contributes to his incredible rhythmic style today. Besides my comment we're about Charlie Haden.

[Will Yager]

That article made me rethink my opinion on Flea.

[Marcus Johnson]

I watched some Flea on one the MTV channels a couple of days ago, some live thing. That bugger can really play some slab. As a matter of fact, all four of the Peppers were pretty much playing their a$$es off.

I think I just heard all of the BG Forum collectively say "Well....duhhhh!!"......

[jsbarber]

Originally Posted by Will Yager

That article made me rethink my opinion on Flea.

I was browsing the jazz selection today at a book/music store and I saw Flea in an unusual place - on a Joshua Redman CD. Go figure.

Jim

[tzadik]

+1 on that it was a really, really good article, no matter what you're into.

[Aaron Saunders]

Originally Posted by RSalvador

Your right he is not much into punk now, all you say about Flea is true, but he was a punk rock player first and I don't think he is ashamed of it. Also spending his early years playing punk I think has helped him develop some killer chops that contributes to his incredible rhythmic style today. Besides my comment we're about Charlie Haden.

No, he was a jazz player first. When he picked up bass he got into punk, but no, he was a jazz trumpeter first. All of that said, I finally got this issue in the mail, and it was a fantastic article. I thought it was going to be more of an "interview" Q&A thing, but it was much cooler than that.

PS: I agree with tzadik...also, I'm a big fan of both RHCP and Charlie Haden, so it was a double-treat for me .

[Dharmabum]

For more Charlie Haden/punk rock sort of connections, check out the video on the following webpage: http://corndogs.org/corndogs_video_corndogs.html

It featues Charlie Haden playing with The Minutemen. I'm a huge Minutemen and Charlie Haden fan, and when I saw that video on the above site, my brain suffered a sort of overload, even if it's not the most spectacular music either of them produced.

[djcruse]

Originally Posted by Dharmabum

For more Charlie Haden/punk rock sort of connections, check out the video on the following webpage: http://corndogs.org/corndogs_video_corndogs.html

It featues Charlie Haden playing with The Minutemen. I'm a huge Minutemen and Charlie Haden fan, and when I saw that video on the above site, my brain suffered a sort of overload, even if it's not the most spectacular music either of them produced.

That was a very interesting video to me.

Now, knowing Charlie Haden has known Mike Watt for years leads me guess that perhaps it was Watt who introduced Haden to Flea. I know Flea is a huge fan of Watt and is even sporting a D Boon sticker on his current Fender Jazz bass.

Very interesting indeed.