CHARLIE HADEN & QUARTET WEST
The Art Of The Song (Verve)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Though he has done many noteworthy projects (his 1997 duet album with pianist Kenny Barron, Night And The City, made my top 5 that year), for nearly a decade and a half, bassist Charlie Haden has done some of his finest work with Quartet West, featuring himself and pianist Alan Broadbent, tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts and drummer Larance Marable. The direction of the quartet has often seemed surprisingly conventional to those who continue to think of Charlie Haden as the bassist in Ornette Coleman's breakthrough free jazz unit of the fifties and sixties. While Haden defined the role of the bass for outside players, Quartet West has devoted its attention to more structured arrangements. The word most commonly associated with them is perhaps romanticism, hardly a term that would be applied to Ornette's revolutionary approach.

Romanticism, though, is at the very heart of The Art Of The Song. With the addition of a chamber orchestra and the vocal talents of Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson, the sound of the recording is full and lush. The material is drawn a range of sources that extends from Rachmaninov and Ravel to Leonard Bernstein and Jerome Kern. The mood is subdued, emphasizing beauty and ballads. In the hands of any lesser talents, it could easily have dissolved into a mess of schmaltzy mush. In the hands of Quartet West and company, though, it becomes a sparkling and definitive statement of romantic song at its very best.

Special note should be made of the individual contributions of two members of the quartet. Alan Broadbent is responsible for the string arrangements, and it was a responsibility fraught with hazard. This is, in the final analysis, a jazz recording, and the use of chamber orchestras in a jazz context is always a dicey proposition. Broadbent displays enormous taste and talent in this instance, providing charts that enhance and sustain without ever overwhelming or unduly intruding on the talents of the principal players.

Ernie Watts proves to be an essential component of the quartet as always. His solos are unerringly creative, finding the jazz elements in every arrangement and amplifying them through his tenor. Watts is a fine player, with an impressive body of work outside Quartet West, but he never plays better than he plays with Charlie Haden, and he plays as well here as he ever has.

The track that must be singled out for attention here is "Wayfaring Stranger," on which Haden appears as a vocalist. For those who think that Charlie Haden was born with a bass in his hand, this will be a surprising debut. Haden's first performances, though, were as a singer in his family's band, a mainstay of early country music. Young "cowboy" Charlie Haden first took to the stage at the age of two, and it was a polio attack at the age of fifteen that ended that early career. "Wayfaring Stranger" is drawn from the material performed by the Haden family in the 1940s and 50s. While it's not a jazz performance, and it is perhaps of more historical than musical significance, Haden's vocal is a fitting capstone for this tribute to The Art Of The Song.

Track List:

Lonely Town * Why Did I Choose You * Moment Musical Opus 16 n 3 in B minor * In Love In Vain * Ruth's Waltz * Scenes From A Silver Screen * I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life * You My Love * Prelude en la mineur * The Folks Who LIve On The Hill * Easy On The Heart * Theme For Charlie * Wayfaring Stranger

© 2000 - Shaun Dale