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Charlie Haden bassist,
composer, bandleader, and conscientiously political artist - is truly a
musician of imaginative, intuitive, and communicative powers. A
"poet" of the bass, he has contributed his virtuosity to
many of the most compelling records in jazz. As a vital part of a jazz
revolution begun by his mentor Ornette Coleman, he leads his own
groups and through his music, communicates his deep, rich, resonant sound
reflecting a profound sensibility to music and to life. Quoting author
Joachim Berendt, The Jazz Book, Haden "revolutionized the
harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. He was the
first bassist who consistently avoided playing changes or following
pre-established harmonic schemes, but instead created a solid
harmonic foundation out of the passage of independent melodies. In
technical terms, Haden isn't a virtuoso. His virtuosity lies on a higher
level - in an incredible ability to make the double bass 'sound out.'
Haden cultivates the instrument's gravity as no one else in jazz;
with an unfathomably dark resonance and an earthiness of timbre, endowing
even apparently 'simple' lines with an affecting quality. He is
a master of simplicity, which is among the most difficult things to achieve."
Charlie Haden was born in Shenandoah, Iowa, in 1937. From the
time he was two years old ,
until he was fifteen, he sang on the radio and later
television nearly every day with his family's country and western
group. He learned to play the bass during his teens and, after graduating
from high school, moved to Los Angeles where he met and worked
closely with Art Pepper, Hampton Hawes, Dexter Gordon, and Paul Bley.
It was in Los Angeles in
1957 that Charlie also met Ornette Coleman. It
was a prophetic meeting, for Charlie became the bass player for Ornette's
adventurous new quartet, a quartet that also included Don Cherry
on pocket trumpet, and Billy Higgins on drums. The group caused a
revolution in the jazz world by liberating the soloist from conventional , pre-determined structures - both harmonic and
rhythmic. Charlie played a vital role in this revolutionary new
approach, evolving a way of
playing that sometimes complemented the soloist and sometimes
moved independently. In this respect, like such musicians as Jimmy
Blanton and Charles Mingus, he helped to change the role of the bass
from player being strictly an accompanist to becoming a more direct
participant in music-making and thus an important individual voice.
Not only did Charlie
continue to work with Ornette throughout the 1960's,
but he recorded with John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Pee Wee Russell
as well. In 1966 he began touring with Keith Jarrett. In 1969 Charlie
and composer/arranger Carla Bley assembled eleven musicians (including Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, and Roswell
Rudd) under the banner of
Liberation Music Orchestra to make a record that has
become a milestone in recorded jazz. The record is a heartfelt and emotional
statement about freedom from oppression and repression. It won
the Grand Prix Charles Cros (the French equivalent of the Grammy) as
well as Japan's Gold Disc Award from the magazine Swing Journal. It also
received a Grammy nomination. In the same year Charlie was awarded
Guggenheim Fellowship for composition. In 1976 Haden, Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, and Ed Blackwell (all
of whom had worked closely with
Ornette Coleman) formed the group Old And New Dreams to keep alive Ornette's compositional and
improvisational approaches - as
well as his music. A debut album was recorded for Black
Saint and several subsequent albums were done for ECM. Charlie
reorganized the Liberation Music Orchestra in 1984 with many of the original members - Paul Motian, Don Cherry, Dewey
Redman, Carla Bley, and Michael
Mantler. The group was joined by some new faces - Mick Goodrick, and Jim Pepper among them. Says Charlie,
"The whole underlying
theme for the new music . . . is to communicate honest, human values, and in doing that to try to improve the quality
of life." The new album,
Ballad of the Fallen (MCA/Impulse), was named Record
of the Year in the 1984 Down Beat Critics' Poll. In 1986, Charlie
and Jack DeJohnette, playing with Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny, recorded Song X, which won the Down Beat Readers'
and Critics' Polls. Charlie contributed to yet another award-winning album in
1987, The Michael Brecker
Album, which won both of the Down Beat polls. Charlie was also involved recently in another album with Brecker and
Herbie Hancock. Also
in 1987 Charlie participated in the historic reunion tour of the original
Ornette Coleman Quartet, which also produced the album, In All
Languages. Charlie's first venture as a small-group leader was Quartet
West which debuted in 1987 with
Quartet West (Polygram/Verve) and performed to high
critical acclaim throughout the world. The group is made up of Los
Angeles musicians Ernie Watts on saxophones, Allan Broadbent on piano,
and Larance Marable on drums. It's a wonderful group that reflects
the vast scope of Charlie's musical interests, as well as a desire
to evoke the Raymond Chandler film noir atmosphere of Hollywood in
the 1940's. The band plays everything from Pat Metheny to Ornette Coleman
to Charlie Parker to Haden's originals (some of which are inspired
by the traditional folk tunes he sang as a boy). A
second album, Angel City Polygram/Verve) followed. A third, Haunted Heart
(Polygram/Verve) was released in 1992 to enormous popular and critical acclaim including a pick in Time Magazine as one of
the Top Ten Albums of 1992,
appearances on the Jay Leno Show and the Charles Kuralt Sunday Show, and culminated in a Grammy nomination as
Best Small Group Jazz Recording
of 1992. The group's fourth album, Always Say
Goodbye (Verve) released in 1994 was the recipient of two Grammy nominations
as well as being selected in the Down Beat Critics Poll as "Album
of the Year." Quartet West's most recent album is Now is the Hour
(Verve), featuring string arrangements by Alan Broadbent on most of
the album. Quartet West was named "Acoustic Jazz Group of the
Year" in the 1994 Down
Beat Readers Poll and in 1he 1995 Down Beat Critics Poll.
Charlie's Liberation Music Orchestra completed its trilogy of recordings
with the 1991 release of Dream Keeper (Blue Note), which had
the unique distinction of winning both the Down Beat Critics' and Readers'
polls as "Album of the Year," as well as earning a Grammy nomination
and appearing on more than 30 "Top 10 Jazz Albums of 1991" throughout
the world. The Orchestra's repertoire continues to draw its inspiration from liberation struggles throughout the world.
Despite the difficulties of
touring with this many musicians the Liberation Music Orchestra has performed in Europe, Japan, the United
States, and Canada, performing
most recently at the Hollywood Bowl. In
a fitting tribute to a musician who has been involved with so many of
the most creative musicians of the past three decades, the Montreal Jazz
Festival in 1989 devoted eight consecutive concerts to Charlie, each
night featuring him with a different artist or ensemble he has performed
with in the past, including Pat Metheny, Quartet West, Egberto
Gismonti, and Gonzalo Rubalcabo. Charlie's interest in World Music
is exemplified in his stunning duet recording with the brilliant Portuguese
fado guitarist Carlos Paredes, Dialogues (Antilles). In addition to
recent recorded appearances with Joe Henderson, John Scofield, and Joe Lovano, Charlie has expanded his musical
palette with recordings with
Rickie Lee Jones (on Pop Pop) and Bruce Hornsby (on
Night on the Town) . In 1995 Charlie released Steal Away (Verve), a
duet recording with piano great Hank Jones in a program of hymns, spirituals
and folk songs. As a composer Charlie is being heard more frequently with
"First Song (For
Ruth)" rapidly becoming a jazz standard, having been recorded by Quartet
West, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Stan Getz and Kenny Barron, David Sanborn,
Pat Metheny (with the London Philharmonic), and a vocal version by Abby Lincoln (who wrote a set of lyrics). Founder of the jazz studies program at California Institute of
the Arts in 1982, Charlie Haden
loved jazz education away from the traditional
clinics, big bands and studios and pointed it toward a more
creative and individual educational approach. Emphasizing the spiritual
connection to the creative process, Haden helps students discover
their individual sound, melodies and harmonies.
For his latest Quartet West project on Verve, The Art of the Song, Charlie
Haden not only set out to showcase quintessential tunes that are seldom
performed but also to have their beautiful melodies be given voice by
paragons of song. Featuring a chamber orchestra arranged, orchestrated and
conducted by quartet member Alan Broadbent and the brilliant contributions
of vocalists Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson, The Art of the Song is a lush,
lyrical album that captivates with its sublime beauty and passionate
delivery. Called a "highly unusual and incredibly charming compact
disc" by liner note author Orrin Keepnews, the CD stands as one of the
most alluring and gorgeous recordings of the bassist-bandleader-composer's
career.
"I save songs," says Haden, who shares producer credit for the
album with wife Ruth Cameron. "I have a whole collection of songs I
have set aside. Some are so beautiful they're art songs. Some, like 'Body
and Soul,' are perfect compositions that may get sung all the time but
nonetheless last forever. I wanted to gather together a collection of
complete melodies that tell a story in the music and the lyric and that have
rarely been recorded. So, for example, few people besides Frank Sinatra have
ever performed 'Lonely Town' and 'You My Love.' Plus, I wanted them to be
sung by vocalists who are masters at exploring the depth of a song. I'd
always hoped to work with Shirley and Bill, who are both singers who perform
at the creative level of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker."
The CD includes a range of classic songs, including numbers by Jerome Kern
("In Love In Vain"), Cy Coleman ("I'm Gonna Laugh You Right
Out of My Life"), Leonard Bernstein ("Lonely Town") and Jimmy
Van Heusen ("You My Love"), as well as a Broadbent original
("Scenes From A Silver Screen") and two tunes ("Ruth's
Waltz" and "Easy On the Heart") that are collaborations
between Haden and lyricist Arthur Hamilton. In addition, there are two
chamber music instrumentals, a Rachmaninoff "musical moment" and a
Ravel prelude, arranged for the date by Broadbent. The album ends with two
gems, "Theme For Charlie," a compositional gift given to Haden in
the mid '80s by family friend pianist-vocalist Jeri Southern, and
"Wayfaring Stranger," which features Haden making his vocal debut
on a recording with a touching rendition of the traditional folk tune.
The outing proves to be yet another triumph for Haden's Quartet West, a Los
Angeles-based group he formed in 1986. It features Broadbent on piano, Ernie
Watts on tenor saxophone and Larance Marable, who replaced charter member
Billy Higgins after the acoustic quartet's eponymous debut album, on drums.
The group, which has recorded such superb Verve albums as Quartet West
(1986) In Angel City (1988), the Grammy" nominated Haunted Heart
(1991), Always Say Goodbye (1994) and Now Is the Hour (1996), is one of the
few rare groups in jazz that has continued to perform as an ensemble over a
long stretch of time (Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and
Jack DeJohnette is another).
"We have developed an intuitive sense musically and spiritually,"
says Haden. "Just like the Modern Jazz Quartet, we've developed a sound
that has come from playing together for a long time. Today many CD’s are
recorded by thrown together all-star bands or groups whose personnel is
always changing and who never perform together long enough to develop their
own sound. We've become very close so that our music is all about
inspiration."
While Haden has been actively involved in a number of different projects
since forming Quartet West - including leading his own Liberation Music
Orchestra, engaging in intimate duo recordings with Hank Jones, Kenny Barron
and Pat Metheny and performing as a sideman with a range of artists from
drummer Ginger Baker to pop chanteuse Rickie Lee Jones - he uses the group
as his home base. "That made it easier for us to pull this album
together as quickly as we did," says Haden.
The project got underway in December 1998 with Haden choosing songs and
contacting Horn and Henderson to see if they were interested in working on
the album. "Shirley doesn't usually work on other people's recordings,
but she really liked what I was doing, so she agreed to come to Los
Angeles," Haden says. "Bill lives out here. He's one of the best
male vocalists, yet he's not as well-known as he should be because he also
has a movie and television acting career. He was also excited about getting
involved."
Once Horn and Henderson agreed on the four songs they would each sing (to
augment Haden's choices, the former suggested adding Kern's "The Folks
Who Live on the Hill" to the mix while the latter selected "Why
Did I Choose You" from the Broadway show "The Yearling"),
Broadbent developed the arrangements and the recording began in mid-February
1999. "The sessions went beautifully," Haden recalls. "All
these songs are first takes with no overdubs. Usually when you record an
album that uses a 30-piece string section, you record the strings first and
everyone overdubs their solos onto the orchestra tracks. But I don't like to
do that. So everyone was in the studio together recording at the same
time."
Since Broadbent was conducting the chamber orchestra, he was reluctant at
first to solo. But Haden persisted in his request, insisting that he didn't
want overdubs of any kind on the album. "I pleaded with Alan to please
try. I said the same thing to Ernie. And they both played great." (Broadbent's
brilliance on the keys is evident on his own tune "Scenes From A Silver
Screen," Watts' spotlight performance is on the Ravel piece "Prélude
en la mineur" and the leader himself shines on "Why Did I Choose
You.")
As for the inclusion of the Rachmoninoff "Moments Musicaux, Opus 16, #3
in B minor," Haden says it's one of his favorite classical piano pieces
that he wanted to hear with string orchestration. He played it for Broadbent,
who in turn shared with Haden the Ravel composition, which had actually been
written by the composer for a student competition in 1913. As for the Jeri
Southern tune, "Theme for Charlie," Haden says that he brought it
to the sessions at the last minute thinking that perhaps Broadbent and Watts
could render the number as a duet. But the pianist-arranger returned the
next day with a full string arrangement for it.
While Haden concedes that he was hesitant to record the vocals
for"Wayfaring Stranger," (a song his mother used to sing on the
radio in the family folk-gospel band that played the Grand Ole Opry),
Shirley Horn convinced him that the end result belonged on the album. His
rendition ends the recording on a moving personal note. "Well, I really
just talk through the lyrics," he says self-effacingly. "I've been
looking for an opportunity to record this song for years and if my singing
hadn’t worked, I would have ended up playing the melody on the bass."
What inspired him to sing the tune? A few years ago Haden appeared on Terry
Gross' National Public Radio show, "Fresh Air" to talk about his
Now Is the Hour CD. While explaining why he chose the songs, Haden noted
that he remembered hearing the title tune on the radio as a child and
crying. Gross persuaded him to sing it on the air. "Terry asked me to
sing it and I said, 'Are you kidding me?' but she persisted so I did,"
Haden recalls. "She was in Philadelphia and I was in Los Angeles at the
time. Right after the interview, Terry called the studio where I was and
said, ‘Your voice really sounded beautiful. You should sing on your next
record.’ I told her, ‘You must be puttin’ me on,’ but I thanked her
for the compliment, and said I’d think about it."
When Haden was preparing to record The Art of the Song, he told his longtime
friend and executive producer Jean-Philippe Allard of his intention to sing
a number. "Jean-Philippe was in Paris and we were talking on the
telephone," Haden laughingly recalls. "When I told him I might
sing, there was a pause and then he kept saying 'Pardon?' He was flipping
out. But when he heard the tape, he was so happy I had done it."
In Keepnews' liner notes, he extols Haden's "widely varied celebrations
of the art of the song" as "music that wears well, that gains in
richness and emotional strength as we become increasingly at home with
it." He adds that Haden's choice of repertoire represents some basic
truths "... that good music not only lasts forever, but stays fresh
forever; that lyricism is one of its key qualities; and that if you want to
do a first-class job, it pays to get the best people to join you."
Later Keepnews notes that Haden told him he considers The Art of the Song to
be his best album to date.
"That's right, I love this album," says Haden. "It’s one of
my favorites. Everyone involved put a lot of love into making this music and
I hope many people have a chance to hear this record. It's not just for fans
of jazz. I try to make music that extends beyond categories and this album
is for all kinds of audiences that love quality music."
Courtesy from
http://interjazz.com/haden/
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