Charles Edward Haden
(born August 6, 1937) [1] is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Haden is also known for his signature lyrical bass lines and is one of the most respected bassists and jazz composers today.
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CHARLIE HADEN TICKETS
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Biography
Haden was born in
Shenandoah, Iowa, and raised in a musical family, which often performed together on the radio playing
country music and American
folk songs. Haden made his professional debut as a singer when he was two years old, and continued singing with his family until he contracted a mild form of
polio when he was 15.
The polio damaged his throat muscles and vocal cords, and as a result, Haden was unable to control his pitch while singing. A few years before contracting polio, Haden had become interested in jazz, and began playing his older brother's double bass. Eventually he set his sights on
Los Angeles, and to save money for the trip took a job as house bassist for ABC-TV's
Ozark Jubilee
.
Haden moved to LA in 1957, and quickly began playing professionally, including stints with pianist
Hampton Hawes and saxophonist
Art Pepper. He began playing with
Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s, culminating with
The Shape of Jazz to Come
.
This album was released to much controversy at the time, and Haden himself remarked that the
harmolodic style of playing was so confusing to him at first that he resigned himself to repeating Coleman's lines on the bass. It was only later that he had enough confidence to start playing his own lines during the performances.
Besides his association with Ornette Coleman, Haden was also a member of
Keith Jarrett's trio and "American quartet" from 1967 to 1976 with
Paul Motian and
Dewey Redman.
He played in the collective
Old and New Dreams.
He went on to lead the
Liberation Music Orchestra in the 1970s. Largely arranged by
Carla Bley, their music was very experimental, exploring the realms of free jazz and political music at the same time; the first album focused specifically on the
Spanish Civil War. The LMO has had a shifting membership comprising a "who's who" of jazz instrumentalists. Through Bley's arranging, they have concentrated on a wide palette of brass instruments, including tuba, French horn, and trombone, in addition to the more standard trumpet and reed section. The LMO's 1982 album "The Ballad of the Fallen" commented again on the Spanish Civil War as well as the political instability and United States involvement in Latin America. In 1990, the orchestra returned with "Dream Keeper," a more heterogeneous album which drew on American
gospel music and South African music to comment on politics in
Latin America and
apartheid in
South Africa. The album featured choral contributions from the Oakland Youth Chorus.
In 1971, while on tour in
Portugal, Haden decided to dedicate a performance of his "Song for
Che" to the anticolonialist revolutionaries in the Portuguese colonies of
Mozambique,
Angola, and
Guinea-Bissau. The following day, he was detained at the Lisbon airport, jailed, and interrogated by the
DGS (the Portuguese secret police). He was promptly released the same day after the intervention of the American cultural attaché, though he was later interviewed by the
FBI in the United States about his choice of dedication.
[2]thumb
Thematic exploration of genres not typically considered to be jazz standards became one of the signature approaches of the
Charlie Haden Quartet West. Started in 1987, the Quartet consists of
Ernie Watts on sax,
Alan Broadbent on piano, and
Larance Marable on drums. Quartet West's albums feature lush, romantic arrangements by Broadbent, often with strings, of music from the 1930s and 1940s, often music associated with films of that period.
Haden has also been active over the years working in duets with pianists such as
Hank Jones,
Kenny Barron, and
Denny Zeitlin. He has explored spiritual hymns with Jones, American folk music in
American Hymns
, and Cuban folk music in
Nocturne
.
In 1989, Haden was featured at the
Montreal Jazz Festival, and performed in concert every night of the festival, with different combos and bands. Each of these events was recorded, and most have been released in the series "The Montreal Tapes."
In late 1996, he collaborated with
Pat Metheny on the album
Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories)
, exploring the music that influenced them in their childhood experiences in Missouri with what they call "contemporary impressionistic americana."
Haden reconvened Liberation Music Orchestra in 2005, with largely new members, for the album
Not In Our Name
, released on
Verve Records. The album dealt primarily with the contemporary political situation in the United States.
A feature length documentary
Charlie Haden
is in production.
[3]
Haden's most recent release,
Rambling Boy
, features several members of his immediate family, along with
Béla Fleck, Pat Metheny,
Elvis Costello, and others. The album, released on 23 September 2008, harkens back to his days of playing
Americana and bluegrass music with his parents on their radio show. A concert tour with Quartet West (with a new drummer) is also scheduled for the late summer.
Family
His son
Josh Haden is a bass guitarist and singer. He recorded with 1980s punk band
Trecherous Jaywalkers (who recorded for
SST Records), and is presently a member of
Spain. His triplet daughters,
Petra,
Tanya and
Rachel Haden, are all musicians. Petra and Rachel were in
that dog.; Petra was a member of
progressive folk group
The Decemberists, Rachel was a founding member of rock band,
The Rentals, and Tanya is married to actor
Jack Black.
Discography
- Liberation Music Orchestra
(1969)
- My Goal's Beyond
(John McLaughlin) (1970)
- Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
(Yoko Ono, 1970)
- Escalator Over The Hill
(Carla Bley, 1971)
- Brown Rice
(Don Cherry, 1975)
- Old and New Dreams
(Old and New Dreams, 1976)
- Musique Mecanique
(Carla Bley, 1978)
- Magico
(Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gismonti, 1979)
- Folk Songs
(with Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gismonti, 1979)
- Chair in the Sky
(Mingus Dynasty, an ensemble of Charles Mingus sidemen, along with Joni Mitchell, 1980)
- Time Remembers One Time Once
(1981)
- The Ballad of the Fallen
(Liberation Music Orchestra, 1982)
- Silence
(Chet Baker, Enrico Pieranunzi, Billy Higgins, 1987)
- In Angel City
(1988)
- Private Collection
(1988)
- The Montreal Tapes, vol.1
(Charlie Haden, Paul Bley, Paul Motian, 1989)
- Dream Keeper
(Liberation Music Orchestra, 1990)
- Pop Pop
(Rickie Lee Jones, 1991)
- Always Say Goodbye
(1993)
- Coming Back Home
(Ginger Baker Trio with Bill Frisell), (1994)
- Wanton Spirit
(Trio led by Kenny Barron, with Roy Haynes), 1994
- Steal Away
(Hank Jones, 1995)
- Night And The City
(Kenny Barron, 1996)
- Deep In The Blues
( James Cotton, Joe Louis Walker, Charlie Haden, Dave Maxwell, 1996)
- None but the Lonely Heart
(1997)
- Beyond the Missouri Sky
(Pat Metheny) (1997)
- In The Year Of The Dragon
(Geri Allen, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, 1998)
- The Art of the Song
(1999)
- Nocturne
(2001)
- American Dreams
(with Michael Brecker, 2002)
- Land of the Sun
(with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, 2004)
- Not in Our Name
(Liberation Music Orchestra, 2005)
- Special Encounter
(Enrico Pieranunzi, Paul Motian, 2005)
- Heartplay
(Charlie Haden, Antonio Forcione, 2006)
- Private Collection
(Quartet West, live), Naim, 2007
- Rambling Boy
(Charlie Haden), Decca, 2008
As sideman
With Ornette Coleman
- The Shape of Jazz to Come
(1959)
- Change of the Century
(1959)
- Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
(1961)
- Science Fiction
(1971)
With Keith Jarrett
- Life Between The Exit Signs
(1967)
- Expectations
(1971)
- Fort Yawuh
(1973)
- Treasure Island
(1974)
- Death and the Flower
(1974)
- The Survivors' Suite
(1977)
References
- allmusic Biography
- Jazz Legend Charlie Haden on His Life, His Music and His Politics. Democracy Now. September 01, 2006 Accessed January 5, 2009.
- IMDB entry for ''Charlie Haden'' documentary. Accessed January 5, 2009.