Charlie Haden

Something that Smiley and I share, and have talked about on numerous occasions is the influence of bassist Charlie Haden on not only our bass playing, but our musicality in general. I would say that over time Haden has probably been my biggest influence as a bassist, and although I don't listen to him as much as I once did, I consider him maybe the most considerable force in my development as an improvising bassist.

A brief and understated bio of Charlie Haden goes like this: He made his first big (and I mean BIG) splash in the late 1950's as the bassist for the Ornette Coleman Quartet, with Ornette on alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, and Billy Higgins on drums. The group underwent a number of lineup changes, but any formation of the band recorded with Haden playing bass is fantastic. He went on to play with Keith Jarrett's American Quartet in the late 60's with Jarrett on piano, Dewey Redman on tenor, and Paul Motian on drums. Upon leaving the Jarrett quartet Haden started his Liberation Music Orchestra, a large jazz ensemble with a strong politcal message that went on to record some of the greatest large ensemble records in the jazz library. They still perform and tour to this day in different configurations. A slightly more in depth bio is available here, which includes his projects after the Liberation Music Orchestra.

My top-5 albums either with Haden or led by Haden (in no particular order, this is very hard to do by the way):

Ornette Coleman--The Shape of Jazz To Come - this changed it all for me.
Ornette Coleman--The Complete Science Fiction Sessions
Keith Jarrett Quartet--The Impulse Years Boxed Sets (there are two, both great)
Charlie Haden--Liberation Music Orchestra (Self-Titled) (a slight edge over Ballad of the Fallen)
Charlie Haden--The Montreal Tapes w/ Joe Henderson, or The Golden Number, or Etudes

Smiley, what you got for favorite albums?!?

I enjoyed all of the youtube videos from Smiley's recommend (man, I had never seen that Vandermark clip, or the Hollenbeck/Bleckmann thing. Beautiful). Here is his Charlie Haden youtube recommendation. The Ornette group footage here is great, and classic. The interview footage was taken shortly after Haden was apprehended in Portugal for making a politcal statement on stage while performing with Ornette: