Farewell, Charlie Haden

One of the greatest jazz musicians of all time (though little known to the wider public), the bassist Charlie Haden died last week. Raised on a farm in Iowa in the 1940s, Haden came from a family of musicians. The first chance he got, he split for the coast, as they used to say, and almost immediately found himself in LA playing with free jazz pioneer and genius Ornette Coleman. Haden liked to play in every format, from duets with people like Hank Jones and Pat Metheney; to small group formats with Keith Jarrett, the "super-group" Old and New Dreams, and his own noir-music nostalgia group Quartet West; to his uber-political big band Liberation Music Orchestra, which he founded with Carla Bley. His tone was deep and pure. As accompanist he was spare, finding the right foundational note; as a soloist he focused on melody and meditative, resonant strumming. The dude was heavy, with a beautiful, loving heart. Toward the end of his life he formed a group dedicated to the rural music of his youth. This stunning piece from that group on The Letterman Show provides quite a send off. Below that that I'm posting his lovely First Song, written for his wife, and the grooving De Drums, with the Keith Jarrett Quartet.