9/26/2014 Jazz Articles: Charlie Haden: Everything Man - By Don Heckman Jazz Articles

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Charlie Haden: Everything Man
Don Heckman profiles noted bassist and bandleader
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Keith Jarrett and Charlie Haden
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Charlie Haden
9/26/2014 Jazz Articles: Charlie Haden: Everything Man - By Don Heckman Jazz Articles
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Charlie Haden
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Charlie Haden's Quartet West
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04/19/11
Don Heckman
From country music to free jazz to Sophisticated Ladies, his romantic new release featuring Quartet
West and a host of vocal greats, there isnt much Charlie Haden hasnt done musically in his 73
years. Here, the historic bassist, composer and bandleader details recent projects, takes stock and
hints at the possibility of a new recorded collaboration with
Ornette Coleman.
******
Charlie Haden has a lot on his mind. His new record is about to drop, bookings to celebrate the 25th
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anniversary of his Quartet West are lining up, and in just a couple days hell be performing in
Singapore.
But at the moment, seated in an Italian restaurant near his home in a northwest suburb of Los Angeles,
its the coffee hes drinking thats bothering him. Hes been coughing since he took the first sip.
Coffee! he mutters. I keep drinking it and I keep coughing. And then, in his typically whimsical
fashion, he laughs at the inadvertent pun.
Fortunately, the last cough plays itself out, and Haden can finally continue our conversation about his
eternally busy musical life. Renaissance man is a term thats often bandied about too freely, but in
Hadens case it seems completely appropriate.
Take the new Quartet West album, Sophisticated Ladies (Emarcy), for example. Like previous
recordings by the band, whose current lineup is bassist Haden, pianist/arranger Alan Broadbent,
saxophonist Ernie Watts and new drummer Rodney Green, it springs from an intriguing concept. In
this case that means American standards and obscurities, illuminated via the voices of some of
Hadens favorite singers in romantic, string-laden settings. I want to tell you about all of it, man, he
says, leaning back in his chair. Its one of the best things Ive done. Which is high praise indeed,
because Hadens done a lot. At 73, he still has a strikingly youthful demeanor, and his enthusiasm is
palpable.
Still, Broadbent, who describes himself as the official film-noir arranger for the quartet, had doubts
when Haden first described the project. About six months ago Charlie approached me with the idea
of getting these singers together to do something with us, he recalls. And I said, What singers are
you talking about? And he said, Diana [Krall], Norah Jones. And I said, Yeah, OK. And then he
rattled off the other names. I said, Thats wonderful, Charlie, but no wayno way youre going to
get all these divas together. But he did, and before I knew it, I was writing these arrangements and he
was making it happen. Thats Charlie.
Krall, who studied with Broadbent when she first moved to Los Angeles, was an immediate choice.
Diana and I have been friends for many years, says Haden, going back to when she was in L.A.
and she was studying a little bit with Alan and Jimmy Rowles. Alan was actually on tour with her
when we started to put this together.
Kralls song selection was the Gordon Jenkins classic Goodbye, once the theme for the Benny
Goodman Orchestra. The poignant composition, written by Jenkins after his wife died in childbirth,
was also included in last years Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden release, Jasmine (ECM). After Diana,
says Haden, I called Melody Gardot and Norah Jones, and they said they were just honored to be
asked to do it. Cassandra Wilson and Rene Fleming had the same reactions, and I was honored to
have them, too, because theyre all very important singers, as well as being very gracious.
Like the other singers, Jones accepted the invitation because, as she says, Ive always been a Charlie
fan. One of my favorite records is the one he did with Hank Jones called Steal Away. Also, since we
have similar loves for both jazz and country and folk music, I thought it would be fun to get together.
Her feelings about Haden were confirmed at the recording. Hes a good hang, she says.
Despite the enthusiasm, scheduling was a problem. It was rough getting them together, says Haden,
because they all had their own tour commitments. I actually got three of them in the studio with the
strings, but two of themCassandra Wilson and Rene Fleminghad to wear headphones. All of
them kind of told me, I want to sing with the strings, I dont want to sing with headphones. But I had
to tell them, Well, were going to have to do headphones, because we can only afford the orchestra
for one day, and we cant schedule everyone for that one day.
In addition to Goodbye, the program for Sophisticated Ladies sparkles. If Im Lucky had a special
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impact on Gardot, who wasnt familiar with the song. According to Haden, she called him in tears,
saying, Oh my God, Charlie. I just Googled the song. Perry Como used to do it, and my father just
loved Perry Como. Jones came up with her own pick. I love this song called Ill Wind, she told
Haden. Ive never sung it, but I love it.
My Love and I, sung by Wilson, traces to the mid-50s Burt Lancaster Western Apache. We really
had to work to track that one down, says Haden. It was originally part of the score by David Raksin.
But it took us a while to discover that lyrics were added later by Johnny Mercer, whod also written
lyrics for Raksins Laura.
A Love Like This, Flemings offering, can be heard in another film, For Whom the Bell Tolls. I
played the song for her, Haden recalls, and she really loved it. Its almost like a classical kind of art
song, played throughout the movie as a love theme.
The song Lets Call It a Day nearly generated dissension within the Haden family. Hadens wife,
Ruth Cameron, a fine singer in her own right and co-producer of Sophisticated Ladies, had been
planning to record it for her own project but hadnt yet committed it to tape.
Haden approached the matter gently. When the opportunity came up to do this album, I asked Ruth,
Can I talk you into not doing it on your record, and doing it on my record? And then, after a moment
of silence, she said, Oh, I guess so.
Haden laughs at the memory before covering himself. Of course, we actually have some great songs
for her record, too, man. Really!
Cameron is more than pleased with how the album turned out, and praises Hadens quiet yet
controlled production work. Charlie is the best, she says. He never interferes with your
interpretation and always knows instinctively what you need musically.
The six instrumental tracks on Sophisticated Ladies cover a similar range, and showcase the groups
instantly identifiable aesthetic: classic and cool and somewhat mysterious. Some are clearly present
for their romantic aspects Sophisticated Lady, of course, as well as the lyrical theme from the TV
series Markham, Hank Jones lovely Angel Face and the standard My Old Flame. Together with
Steve Kuhns Today I Am a Man and Benny Harris bop classic Wahoo, the records wordless
portion defines the versatility and musical empathy that have kept Quartet West together for so many
years.
Although the group is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, some of its relationships reach back
even further. Watts and Broadbent attended the Berklee School of Music together in the mid-60s, and
both received DownBeat scholarships. Watts has high praise for the scoring his old friend has done
over the years. Alans writing is so voluptuous, he says. Its so nice to play that musiceverything
he writes.
He goes on to describe the importance of the quartets professional and personal empathy. Weve
played a lot of different kinds of music in a lot of different environments and had many, many
experiences. Everybody just loves the music and everybody loves each other. Its a very, very
comfortable playing environmenta very open and free kind of playing environment, so it feels
really good to be there. Bottom line: Its like a family.
Charlies one of those guys like Woody Herman, adds Broadbent. He puts bands together. He gets
people together to realize a musical vision he has, although within that vision theres always room for
our own personalities.
For manyprobably mostjazz artists, an album like Sophisticated Ladies would be a rare offshoot.
But not for Haden, whose credits reach from Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett to Dizzy Gillespie,
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Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr, also hitting such global jazz figures as
Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, Enrico Pieranunzi and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. (And dont forget
Hadens Liberation Music Orchestra.)
But when I mention this wide-ranging resume, Haden smiles and says, Hey, you forgot my career as
a country singer.
Hes right. Especially since it was Hadens first musical experience, beginning, he swears, when he
was 22 months old, in his hometown of Shenandoah, Iowa. Its true, he enthuses. My mom said
she was rocking me to sleep one day, singing this song, and I started humming the harmony with her.
She said, Thats when I found out you were ready for the show.
The show was The Haden Family radio show featuring the future jazz icon, his parents and his three
older siblings. This was in the late 40s, he recalls. They used to get the Carters and Roy Acuff and
everybody from Nashville to come up and guest on the show. When theyd come to Springfield,
Mother Maybelle Carter would come and stay with us. She was good friends with my mother, and she
used to sing me to sleep.
Hadens previous album, 2008s Rambling Boy, recalls those youthful years with country tunes
performed by Hadens familywife Ruth and their four children, Josh, Petra, Tanya and Racheland
an impressive stable of guests. On one track, the leaders youthful precocity is affirmed by a recording
from a radio broadcast in which the 2-year-old Charles Edward Haden sings and yodels.
But it was jazz that soon exerted a powerful attraction for Haden as a teenager. By the time he was
ready for college in the mid-50s, he moved to Los Angeles to study at the Westlake College of
Music, turning down a scholarship to Oberlin because it did not, at the time, have much of a jazz
program. Gigs came quickly with the likes of Hampton Hawes, Art Pepper, Paul Bley and others. It
was cool, man, he says. But what I really wanted was to be back there earlier, like a decade earlier,
playing with Bird and Fats and those guys.
But if you had been able to do that, I ask, wouldnt it have led to a very different life?
Maybe not, Haden replies, reflective. I mean, I had the same affliction Bird did, so probably I
wouldnt even have had a life.
In which case you wouldnt have played with Ornette Coleman.
Yeah, man. Exactly. I would have missed Ornette. And that was just as importantthat renaissance
or revolution, whatever. But Ill tell you something about Ornette that most people dont realize.
Theres a record we made with Paul Bley called The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet at the Hillcrest. And
were playing tunes like Klactoveesedstene, and all those songs with chord changes. And Ornette is
playing all the changes. You can hear them. And, man, he used to play chord changes with us all the
time.
*****
When Haden, Coleman, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins arrived in New York City
for a seminal gig at the Five Spot Caf in November 1959, the music had moved beyond bebop tunes
and chord changes. The Coleman Quartets six-week run triggered the arrival of what would be called
free jazz, avant-garde jazz and the New Thing. Much of the jazz that followed in the 60s and beyond,
however it evolved, seemed inextricably linked to the startling music that flowed from the Coleman
Quartet.
For the players, however, it was something that, according to Haden, they worked out as we went
along. We did it all by ear. At first when we were playing and improvising, we kind of followed the
pattern of the song, sometimes. Then, when we got to New York, Ornette wasnt playing on the song
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patterns, like the bridge and the interlude and stuff like that. He would just play. And thats when I
started just following him and playing the chord changes that he was playing: on-the-spot new chord
structures made up according to how he felt at any given moment. And Cherry was kind of playing
like that, too, so Billy and I kind of followed it.
The truth is, he continues, that when we had first met, we were kind of all hearing that way
already. We just happened to be at the right place at the right time, all together, to make this thing
happen. And it just kept getting better and better.
Despite all Haden has accomplished since his years with Coleman, he continues to look back at that
period with a deep affection. And, as eager as he is to continue assembling projects like Sophisticated
Ladies, he would love to have a Coleman/Haden reunion recording on his agenda. Im trying to get
him to record again, man, he says. Cause were the only ones left from the quartet. I played with
Ornette at the North Sea festival on July 8, 2010, and it was something else. Just me and him and his
son Denardo. I keep talking to Denardo about getting back together, recording the tunes again from
that [1967] record The Empty Foxholea revolutionary record right there. [Ed. Note: Coleman
famously and controversially chose a 10-year-old Denardo to play drums on that trio date.]
[Those tunes] havent been recorded since, he goes on. So my idea is to do an Empty Foxhole tour,
or something like that. But you know Ornette; hes the one who has to instigate the idea.
Haden no doubt has in mind the process that brought about the recording of Jasmine, last years
highly praised collection of duet performances with Keith Jarrett. Like the proposed Coleman/Haden
recording, the Jarrett/Haden teaming is a revival of an extended musical relationship, dating back to
his numerous recordings with Jarrett in the 60s and 70sincluding those by the pianists revered
American Quartet.
It apparently came about spontaneously, although Haden suspects that his wife, Ruth, who manages
all of the details of his career, may have had something to do with it. In 2007, the couple was planning
to visit Jarrett at his home and studio in New Jersey, to record an interview with him for Rambling
Boy, the excellent documentary by Zurich-born filmmaker Reto Caduff. As they were getting ready to
leave, Ruth asked him to put his bass in the car.
Haden recalled the exchange with a sardonic smile. I looked at her and said, Why? And she said,
Just put your bass in the car. And I said, OK So we got there, they were interviewing Keith, and
then afterwards he said, So you have your bass in the car? And I said, Yeah. Who told you that?
But he ignored that and just said, Bring it in. So I did, and we started playing. It was like magic. He
jumped up, hugged me and said, Man, this is so great! He said, Charlie, weve got to record.
Fans will be happy to hear that there wasnt enough room to put all the music on a single CD. I dont
know, says Haden, if its going to come out as a second CD, or if well do another one or what.
Because you never know what Keiths going to do. But theres enough for another album.
*****
Hadens relentless schedule will continue through this year with the release of an album with Lee
Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Paul Motian marking the 60th anniversary of Birdland, as well as another
duo album with Hank Jones, reportedly the pianists last recording before his death in May 2010.
Haden is also hoping for another get together with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and guitarist Egberto
Gismonti for a CD following in the path of their Magico and Folk Songs albums. In between, hell be
celebrating Quartet Wests quarter century with appearances in the U.S. and abroad.
Hadens coffee safely finished, his assistant reminds him that Singapore beckons, and that theyd
better get moving. But I manage to squeeze in one more question, asking him what it is that has driven
him toward so many different creative goals. Are Renaissance men born or are they made?
He pauses for a moment, then answers, quietly, thoughtfully.
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Well, my parents were like that, too, and Ive always, from the beginning, wanted to play different
music from different parts of the world. And then, as I was exposed to the problems of society as I
was growing upracism, Vietnamthat affected me, too. But I think the simple answer is this: Who
you are and what you do comes from whats inside you.
Originally published in May 2011
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