Charlie Haden

Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) is a jazz album by Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny, two musicians who come from Missouri. The album was released by Verve Records on February 25, 1997. At the 40th Grammy Awards, they were awarded (Haden's first and Metheny's tenth) the Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.

It would seem a strange thing compiling the work of Charlie Haden's decade-long Quartet West Group onto a single disc. The reason isn't that they recorded so much material, but more because the material was themed record by record. Yet that is exactly why a compilation like this does work, because this group played music utilizing different aspects of the same theme: to evoke the spirits, ghosts and sprites of a Los Angeles that has moved off the screen of real life into the stuff of myth. That Haden and his group, which included drummer Larance Marable (who replaced Billy Higgins after the group's first, self-titled album in 1986), saxophonist Ernie Watts, and pianist Alan Broadbent could make it all sound so present and real, gives the impression that there was truth in the images. This is not only from a West Coast point of view (though there it is imbued more with the striking visual reveries to accompany the tunes) but also in the popular culture mythos in the collective American mind.

This overly long quartet-plus-strings session is Charlie Haden's paean to an ideal America, made during a time that was ripe for such reflections. The band, with Haden on bass, Michael Brecker on tenor, Brad Mehldau on piano, and Brian Blade on drums, is unassailably strong. But listeners could have lived without the ear-candy sheen provided by the 34-piece orchestra, arranged primarily by Alan Broadbent, with additional contributions from Jeremy Lubbock and Vince Mendoza. (Broadbent and Mendoza also penned charts for Jane Monheit's In the Sun, released two weeks earlier.) Aside from outright banalities like "America the Beautiful" and "It Might Be You" (yes, the Stephen Bishop lite-radio hit), there are some saving graces, like Keith Jarrett's "Prism" and "No Lonely Nights," Mehldau's "Ron's Place," and Haden's two originals, "American Dreams" and "Nightfall."

Charlie Haden - "Closeness" Duets (1976) {Horizon–A&M Records, D32Y3826, Japan Early Press}
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© 1976, 1987 Horizon / A&M Records / Canyon Records Japan | D32Y3826
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Bass

One of Charlie's best albums of the 70s – a beautifully stripped down set of duets with well-matched players that include Alice Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Paul Motian, and Keith Jarrett! The spare format is an extremely wonderful showcase for Haden's expressive bass work – and the intimacy of the tracks is different from some of the ECM recordings made during the same stretch – as the feel here is less a muted exploration of sound than it is a deeply personal interaction with some of the best talents of his generation.

Charlie Haden - The Montreal Tapes (2009) {6CD Box Set Verve 530 999-6 rec 1989}
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© 1989, 2009 Verve Records / Universal Music France | 530 999-6
Jazz / Post Bop / Bass

This box set contains everything released on Verve of the mini-festival of Charlie Haden's music recorded at a Montreal jazz festival in 1989. The music is uniformly excellent, and well-recorded. If you are a Charlie Haden fan, you'll enjoy it. Recording live of Charlie Haden's concerts at the 1989 Montreal International Jazz Festival. Each disc was initially published individually by Verve between 1994 and 2005.

Charlie Haden - The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note (2010) {5CD Set CAM Jazz BXS1001 rec 1977-1990}
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© 1977-90, 2010 CAM Jazz / Black Saint / Soul Note | BXS 1001
Jazz / Post Bop / Hard Bop / Bass

THE COMPLETE REMASTERED RECORDINGS ON BLACK SAINT & SOUL NOTE is a monographic box-set collection aimed at recounting the most beautiful chapters that revolutionised the history of jazz.
This new series was launched in March 2010 with the simultaneous release of four box-sets, including albums by some of the artists who participated in the success of the outstanding labels. A philological work, beginning with the original recordings on multi-track master tapes, patiently integrally remastered paying strict attention to the sound quality.