Legendary bassist Charlie Haden (1937-2014) came from a noted mid-West musical family, purveyors of fine bluegrass-tinged pioneer folk, but Charlie made his name mostly in jazz, though not exclusively, as these albums reveal.
Listen sometime to Charlie Haden playing on the version of Jimmy Webb’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress he cut with guitarist Pat Metheny for their 1997 album, Across the Missouri Sky. It is one of the most moving pieces in contemporary music and if it fails to move you, then you got a problem.
Charlie Haden - father-in-law of Jack Black, incidentally - was once the catalyst of varied and challenging musical enterprises across the musical spectrum, not just in the USA but in Europe too. A discreet bespectacled presence, he stood tall behind that sturdy upright bass, underscoring and underpinning the tune with unerring instinct and occasionally letting loose a ruminative solo. In May 2001, incidentally, Charlie brought his Quartet West to Vicar Street for a memorable, if not unduly lengthy performance.
Haden first came to notice as a contributor to Ornette Coleman's adventurous 1950s and 1960s albums before he launched his Liberation Music Orchestra after which he was essentially a highly-respected bass gun for hire. But he became much more than that. The five albums gathered here display various aspects of the man’s talent, beginning, chronologically at least, with the 1992 film-theme special, Haunted Heart, featuring Quartet West. That estimable ensemble comprised Ernie Watts on tenor sax, pianist Alan Broadbent, drummer Laurence Marable. There are spirituals, hymns and folk songs interpreted by the bassist with pianist Hank Jones on Steal Away, recorded in Montreal over two days in June 1994. The interpretations are quite plain, unadorned, they may be an acquired taste to listeners more interested in the sensual offerings.
For something completely different then, sample the live duets with pianist Kenny Barron recorded at New York City's Iridium jazz club on the Night in the City album from 1996. Quartet West surface again, with Chamber Orchestra, on Art of The Song, featuring the singing of Shirley Horn, particularly memorable on her reading of The Folks Who Live on the Hill.
Charlie himself sings - he usually didn’t - on a sensitive, profound arrangement of Wayfaring Stranger, brought to magisterial heights by the presence of the chamber musicians. That Art of The Song album was recorded in Hollywood between February 19 - 22, 1999, but it sounds elaborately produced. The pre-production must have been intense, to say the least.
Recorded in Miami the following year, Nocturne sees Charlie do a Cuban turn with, amongst others, Gonzalo Rubalcaba on piano, Joe Lovano and David Sanchez on tenor saxes and once again, the great guitarist Pat Metheny on board. A varied set of platters.
