Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny (1997) -Beyond The Missouri Sky

Artist: Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny
Album: Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories)
Released: 1997
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks)
Size: 353 MB (with scans)

Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny have been good friends since the 1970s, so it comes as a bit of a surprise that Beyond the Missouri Sky should be their first duet album together. Both musicians are from small towns in Missouri, which leads Metheny to speculate in the liner notes if this similarity of childhood ambience might have something to do with the two players' obvious love and affinity for each other. Whatever the answer, the result of this logical pairing is a rather somber and moody one. Metheny has a dark tone on his electric guitar, and on Beyond the Missouri Sky, where he plays acoustic, his sound is similarly deep and rounded. Metheny has called Haden one of the greatest improvisers of all time, and although this may be hyperbolic exaggeration from a longtime friend, Haden has at least earned the right to defend the claim. On Beyond the Missouri Sky, his playing is as sensitive and beautiful as always. Although one can understand the vibe that Haden and Metheny were going for, the preponderance of slow and mid-tempo material can wear on the listener. When they eschew the dirge-like tempos, as on the fantastic "The Precious Jewel," the results are just as atmospheric and are, in fact, even more evocative of the Midwestern landscapes that are featured so prominently in the album art. With Metheny setting up a strummy rhythm, Haden plays the stately melody with impeccable tone. This track, one of many, also showcases Metheny overdubbing different guitars to thicken out the sound of the performance. The results are similar, at least in spirit, to Bill Frisell's recordings in the latter half of the 1990s. Although many Metheny and Haden compositions that are featured on this record, it is their readings of older material that are most effective. The Jimmy Webb classic "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" is wonderfully nostalgic, as Metheny uses subtle guitar and synth washes to pad a beautiful duet performance, and the traditional "He's Gone Away" is the greatest lullaby that never was. Overall, Beyond the Missouri Sky is a fine record when the material is happening, but a bit of a chore when it is not. If Haden and Metheny had gone with the more Americana theme throughout, instead of interspersing that rootsy feel with post-bop, it would have been a much stronger record. ~ Daniel Gioffre

Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron (1998) -Night & The City

Artist: Charlie Haden & Kenny Barron
Album: Night & The City
Released: 1998
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks) / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 281 / 185 MB

The third in a series of Charlie Haden duet projects for Verve in the 1990s finds the increasingly nostalgia-minded bass player working New York City's Iridium jazz club with pianist Kenny Barron. Moreover, it is entirely possible that we are getting a skewed view of the gig; according to Haden, he and his co-producer wife Ruth tilted this album heavily in the direction of romantic ballads, eliminating the bebop and avant-garde numbers that the two may have also played at the club. Be that as it may, this is still a thoughtful, intensely musical, sometimes haunting set of performances, with Barron displaying a high level of lyrical sensitivity and Haden applying his massive tone sparingly. Most of the seven tracks are fantasias on well-known standards, although one of the most eloquent performances on the disc is Barron's playing on his own "Twilight Song." If Haden deliberately set out to create a single reflective mood, he certainly succeeded, although those coming to Haden for the first time through this and most of his other '90s CDs would never suspect that this man once played such a fire-breathing role in the jazz avant-garde.. ~ Richard S. Ginell

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones (1995) -Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns & Folk Songs

Artist: Charlie Haden & Hank Jones
Albums: Steal Away
Released: 1995
Quality: lossless (FLAC tracks)
Size: 238 MB

Charlie Haden has always had a penchant for roots music, including folk songs from varied traditions in the repertoire of his Liberation Music Orchestra. It's more than affectation; the bassist's musical roots are in Oklahoma, and his career began in early childhood with his family's country-music group. Those sources loom large in this inspired meeting with pianist Hank Jones over a program devoted largely to spirituals, with a few secular folk songs added in. The feelings communicated here arise from no simple reading of traditional material. It's Jones's unmatched harmonic sensitivity that often works the transformation, his close-voiced chords adding new resonance to summon the depths at which this material communicates. Haden, for his part, is as effective a soloist as he is an accompanist, spare and exacting and making full use of his huge, dark sound and powerful lower register. This is music by two masters, immersing themselves in a profound stream of American music. ~ Stuart Broomer

Charlie Haden Quartet West (2010) -Sophisticated Ladies

Artist: Charlie Haden
Albums: Sophisticated Ladies
Released: 2010
Quality: FLAC
Size: 373 MB

One of the finest double bassists in jazz Charlie Haden says more with a few finely chosen notes than many lesser musicians try and say with a hundred. His warm bass tone is the core element of his stunning Quartet West whose smoky, atmospheric approach to jazz has won them critical acclaim for over twenty years with pianist Alan Broadbent casting a harmonic spell from which phenomenal saxophonist Ernie Watts can take flight, while Laurence Marable’s subtle drumming is perfectly in synch with Haden’s hypnotic bass work.

Returning with a new album Sophisticated Ladies, that’s inspired by and dedicated to their mutual love of the some of jazz’s most celebrated female singers, French jazz expert Jean-Phillipe Allard writes about this spellbinding new project from one of jazz’s most consistent and compelling artists:

“I had the occasion to meet up with Charlie Haden in New York in July 2009. As I’ve been working in publishing, I hadn’t worked with him in almost ten years and had rarely seen or spoken to him during all that time. After hugs and small talk, he asked me if I’d like to work with him again on the production of two projects: a duet with Hank Jones and a new Quartet West recording. Those ten years just dissolved and it felt as though yesterday was the last time we’d spoken. Feeling honoured and very excited at the thought of working once again with Charlie and the Quartet. I heard myself say: “yes”!

After a couple of long-distance brain-storming phone sessions we decided to do a sequel to the Quartet West album “The Art of the Song” which had featured the late Shirley Horn and the unique Bill Henderson. In this case we wanted to feature our favourite contemporary jazz singers (I myself am passionate about jazz singers!) and the concept of “Sophisticated Ladies” was born. The dream became reality when all the singers enthusiastically agreed to appear on the album.” - Jean-Philippe Allard

Charlie Haden (1983) -The Ballad Of The Fallen

Artist: Charlie Haden
Albums: The Ballad Of The Fallen
Released: 1983
Quality: FLAC / mp3 CBR 320
Size: 274 / 129 MB

The second recording by Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra utilizes a few alumni (the bassist/leader, trumpeters Don Cherry and Mike Mantler, tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, drummer Paul Motian and pianist Carla Bley), along with other musicians who rose to prominence since the 1969 debut album (Jim Pepper and Steve Slagle on reeds, trombonist Gary Valante, guitarist Mick Goodrick, Sharon Freeman on French horn, and Jack Jeffers on tuba). As with the first set, the music mixes together some melodic but avant-garde explorations with revolutionary themes including songs from the Spanish Civil War, El Salvador, Portugal and Chile. "Too Late," a duet by Bley and Haden, serves as a change of pace. The music is quite credible and emotional, and has dated well. ~ Scott Yanow