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Charlie Haden


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Eveybody raves about Charlie Haden, please explain, to me they are so many better bass players than Mr Haden. To my ears he is one of the most overated jazz musicians I know. Maybe I am missing something. Am I the only one thinking like that.

Appears that you are. I have never heard anyone question Hadens ability as a bassist. I have always liked Hadens playing and I have never felt that his playng ability was overated or marginal as you have suggested. But then again, I heard someone question Eric Dolphys Out o Lunch. The person who wrote the post said the recording was over-rated and was basically a poor effort. Duhhhhh????!!! So I guess you could say that everyone hears something different. To push the point, I recall a guy telling me many years ago that Hank Crawford was a superior player to John Coltrane! And to push it to the limits, I got into an argument with a friend who told me that George Coleman was technically a superior player than Sonny Rollins!!! Donnnnngggg!!!!!!!!! Go figure. :unsure:

Edited by Enterprise Server
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I like very much the collaborations with Lee Konitz and Brad Mehldau (they recorded twice). All three of them sound inspired and play better than usual.

Another album with a very tranquil mood that not many people like is Nocturne.

It's a pretty good album though, the beautiful melodies are very appealing to me and Rubalcaba is very elegant and relaxed on most of the tracks.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&t...10:leamqj7qojka

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I find that even my favorite bassists can be "hit and miss" when it comes to their recordings and performances. I'm a relative novice when it comes to listening to jazz, and most stand-up bass solos do little for me, but after hearing/seeing Ron Carter and a few others who really know their craft, my appreciation is growing. As others have said--Haden is great as far as his body of work and his connections to the wider world of music. Check out HADEN, CHARLIE & JONES, HANK: STEAL AWAY: SPIRITUALS, HYMNS AND FOLK SONGS recorded: 6/29-6/30/94 Verve/Polydor/PolyGram. Haden fans take note: there's an interesting 2-page interview with him in the Winter/Spring 2005 issue of Planet Jazz.

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For me, Ray Brown had the master touch!

There are some phenominal bassist's; Oscar Pettiford, Haden, Anthony Jackson et al. , but hearing Ray's bass, live, still sends a chill up my spine.

I also heartily recommend Ron Carter with Attila Zoller on 'Common Cause'.

pmf

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  • 6 months later...

I find that even my favorite bassists can be "hit and miss" when it comes to their recordings and performances.  I'm a relative novice when it comes to listening to jazz, and most stand-up bass solos do little for me, but after hearing/seeing Ron Carter and a few others who really know their craft, my appreciation is growing.  As others have said--Haden is great as far as his body of work and his connections to the wider world of music.  Check out HADEN, CHARLIE & JONES, HANK:  STEAL AWAY: SPIRITUALS, HYMNS AND FOLK SONGS  recorded: 6/29-6/30/94  Verve/Polydor/PolyGram.  Haden fans take note: there's an interesting 2-page interview with him in the Winter/Spring 2005 issue of Planet Jazz.

Steal Away is sublime!

I agree with both of the above-quoted Organissimites.

Haden is a great jazz bassist, IMHOP. And Steal Away, his spiritual and gospel duet with Hank Jones, is a record that transcends jazz as a genre: one of those records that can appeal to a spectrum of listeners (both Haden and Jones, for one thing, EPITOMIZE poise)...

A Haden recommendation: Silence (Soul Note), with Chet Baker, Enrico Pieranunzi, and Billy Higgins. A great showcase for late Baker, also for Higgins; and then there's Pieranunzi, who Francis Davis's liner-notes find to be reminiscent of Eddie Costa. Six tunes, mainly hackneyed jazz standards, emphasis on the jazz -- yet these renditions are fresh, clean, and revivifying.

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I think Charlie's great, his bass playing when without a pianist, is great.

His playing with a pianist is great also - check out his duets with Hampton Hawes - As Long as There's Music - mentioned earlier in this thread. His duet album with Denny Zeitlin - Time Remembers One Time Once - is a good one too.

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I think Charlie's great, his bass playing when without a pianist, is great.

His playing with a pianist is great also - check out his duets with Hampton Hawes - As Long as There's Music - mentioned earlier in this thread. His duet album with Denny Zeitlin - Time Remembers One Time Once - is a good one too.

Ditto Night and the City with Kenny Barron.

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Guest youmustbe

Not my favorite, but definately one of the great bass players of all time.

The problem is that he has been on so many records, that one tends to overlook him, his contribution to jazz, to music. Familiarity breeding contempt as it were.

Charlie is a royal pain in the ass, though. but, what the hell, he deserves to bust promoter's balls now.

My favorite bass player is Percy Heath. His bass lines were so hamonically rich they were like counter melodies. And he was a wonderful person too !!!

As for Mingus, who I Iheard a lot, as Ron Carter said, as a bass player Mingus was a great personality.

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Not my favorite, but definately one of the great bass players of all time.

The problem is that he has been on so many  records, that one tends to overlook him, his contribution to jazz, to music.  Familiarity breeding contempt as it were.

Charlie is a royal pain in the ass,  though. but, what the hell, he deserves to bust promoter's balls now.

My favorite bass player is Percy Heath.  His bass lines were so hamonically  rich they were like counter melodies. And he was a wonderful person too !!!

As for Mingus, who I Iheard a lot, as Ron Carter said, as a bass player Mingus  was a great personality.

Why is he a pain in the ass?

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As for Mingus, who I Iheard a lot, as Ron Carter said, as a bass player Mingus  was a great personality.

????

Was that meant as a compliment? I hear little or no personality in Ron Carter's playing, so perhaps it was meant as a compliment, but I doubt it. I'd trade every Ron Carter solo in my collection for a few bars of Mingus.

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  • 1 year later...

As for Mingus, who I Iheard a lot, as Ron Carter said, as a bass player Mingus was a great personality.

????

Was that meant as a compliment? I hear little or no personality in Ron Carter's playing, so perhaps it was meant as a compliment, but I doubt it. I'd trade every Ron Carter solo in my collection for a few bars of Mingus.

I have to agree with Paul. All I have to say is that is a weird comment, and if it was intended as an insult, I guess I've heard everything.

Guy

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I know I'm late to this thread, but I would like to say that I'm a fan of Haden. And although I really like the Montreal Tapes (own the Bley/Motion, Cherry/Blackwell, Rubacala/Motion, Lib Orch.) I really like him best with Ornette. And I mean there are levels of Haden's playing that are great with Ornette and then there are times where he is exemplary. I really thought he was a nice fit in Ornette's outfit from the outset; I like every Atlantic side he appears on, but I was really BLOWN away with his contribution on Science Fiction. That is, his sound, his style, and he just hit all the right notes at the right time on that album, and consequently, he made me a bigger, fan, and made me really appreciate his gifts. A word too, for Soapsuds, Soapsuds. I really like him and Ornette alone. He really is an accomplished musician. On the side, he came to the Cleveland Museum of Art in support of his latest disk (Land of the Sun) and I passed. I only did that, because there was rumor that he was not playing as well because of a pitbull attack on his (left?) hand. Can anyone verify that?

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I know I'm late to this thread, but I would like to say that I'm a fan of Haden. And although I really like the Montreal Tapes (own the Bley/Motion, Cherry/Blackwell, Rubacala/Motion, Lib Orch.) I really like him best with Ornette. And I mean there are levels of Haden's playing that are great with Ornette and then there are times where he is exemplary. I really thought he was a nice fit in Ornette's outfit from the outset; I like every Atlantic side he appears on, but I was really BLOWN away with his contribution on Science Fiction. That is, his sound, his style, and he just hit all the right notes at the right time on that album, and consequently, he made me a bigger, fan, and made me really appreciate his gifts. A word too, for Soapsuds, Soapsuds. I really like him and Ornette alone. He really is an accomplished musician. On the side, he came to the Cleveland Museum of Art in support of his latest disk (Land of the Sun) and I passed. I only did that, because there was rumor that he was not playing as well because of a pitbull attack on his (left?) hand. Can anyone verify that?

Land of the Sun is a very nice disc.

I've been lucky enough to see Charlie Haden live four times--in a quartet led by Joe Henderson (Al Foster on drums), Endangered Species with Ornette, Pat Metheny and Denardo, a duet with Paul Bley, and the group featured on Nocturnes, with Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

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I really like him best with Ornette. And I mean there are levels of Haden's playing that are great with Ornette and then there are times where he is exemplary. I really thought he was a nice fit in Ornette's outfit from the outset; I like every Atlantic side he appears on, but I was really BLOWN away with his contribution on Science Fiction. That is, his sound, his style, and he just hit all the right notes at the right time on that album, and consequently, he made me a bigger, fan,

HG -- I completely agree with you about Haden's playing on Science Fiction -- it's incredible. He recorded Expectations* with Keith Jarrett around the same time and his playing there is just as great.

Guy

ps I mention this album specifically because it's also on Columbia, and Charlie has a very similar sound on it.

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