Charlie Haden

The next bassist in line that caught my attention was Charlie Haden. Haden became known as one of free jazz’s founding fathers. Born in 1937 in Shenandoah, Iowa he grew up with a musical childhood. His family had their own radio show broadcast twice a day from a 50,000 was station. Charlie grew up singing with the family band until he was diagnosed with polio at the age of 15. Due to the permanent damage from polio to his nerves in his face and throat, this was the end of his signing career.
After picking up the bass guitar he was hosted with Red Foley on a network broadcast in 1955 playing the bass in Foley’s band. As he became more proficient he moved to Los Angeles and began playing jazz. In 1957 he began playing with pianist Paul Bley at the Hillcrest Club. After hearing Ornette Coleman play for the first time he was impressed with him. Coleman as released from his band he met with him. Later that year Coleman and Haden teamed up with trumpet player Don Cherry and set player Billy Higgins to from the Ornette Coleman Quartet. A quote from allaboutjazz.com “Haden...” revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz. His ability to create serendipitous harmonies by improvising melodic responses to Coleman’s fee-form solos (rather than sticking to predetermined harmonies) was both radical and mesmerizing. His virtuosity lies…in an incredible ability to make the double bass ‘sound out’ and Haden cultivates the instrument’s gravity as no one else in jazz. He is a master of simplicity which is one of the most difficult things to achieve.” (Author Joachim Berendt in The Jazz Book).”[1]
In the years 1967-1976 Haden played as a member of Keith Jarrett’s trio, quarter and quintet. He teamed up with Coleman again and Don Cherry to form the band Old and New Dreams. In 1970 a pieces arranged for Charlie and several other soloists became a milestone in recorded jazz winning Japan’s Gold Disc Award from Swing Journal and France’s Grand Prix Charles Cros award.

In 1982 he formed the Jazz Studies program at California Institute of Arts. Haden formed the band Quartet West that has been together over 20 years. In 1997 classical composer Gavyn Bryars wrote “By the Varr” for Haden and it was recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra on the album “Farewell to Philosophy”. In 2001 Haden was awarded a Latin Grammy Award and in 2009 he received Bass Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He continues today to play and record and as quoted from allaboutjazz.com: “Charlie Haden truly is beyond category!”[2]

For some reason the blogger program would not find my youtube selection so I have left the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEwXcgwzIYE&feature=related

My listening selection this week features Charlie Haden with Pat Metheny. This song starts out in a very slow melodic form. I believe it is an AABA form but it is hard to follow with it being so slow. Around the 2 min mark (just before it) there is some silence and there is a key change. Although this really doesn’t feature Haden all that much, one can tell that he truly is very skilled. I thought this was an exceptional peace to select since it has him on a stand-up bass. These two musicians complement each other extremely well. Truly an amazing piece of music if you have a love for acoustic music, if not this may be a little hard to sit through!