About
Charlie Haden's Nocturne
For his latest Quartet West project on Verve, The Art of the Song, Charlie Haden not only set out to showcase quintessential tunes that are seldom performed but also to have their beautiful melodies be given voice by paragons of song. Featuring a chamber orchestra arranged, orchestrated and conducted by quartet member Alan Broadbent and the brilliant contributions of vocalists Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson, The Art of the Song is a lush, lyrical album that captivates with its sublime beauty and passionate delivery. Called a "highly unusual and incredibly charming compact disc" by liner note author Orrin Keepnews, the CD stands as one of the most alluring and gorgeous recordings of the bassist-bandleader-composer's career."I save songs," says Haden, who shares producer credit for the album with wife Ruth Cameron. "I have a whole collection of songs I have set aside. Some are so beautiful they're art songs. Some, like 'Body and Soul,' are perfect compositions that may get sung all the time but nonetheless last forever. I wanted to gather together a collection of complete melodies that tell a story in the music and the lyric and that have rarely been recorded. So, for example, few people besides Frank Sinatra have ever performed 'Lonely Town' and 'You My Love.' Plus, I wanted them to be sung by vocalists who are masters at exploring the depth of a song. I'd always hoped to work with Shirley and Bill, who are both singers who perform at the creative level of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker."
The CD includes a range of classic songs, including numbers by Jerome Kern ("In Love In Vain"), Cy Coleman ("I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life"), Leonard Bernstein ("Lonely Town") and Jimmy Van Heusen ("You My Love"), as well as a Broadbent original ("Scenes From A Silver Screen") and two tunes ("Ruth's Waltz" and "Easy On the Heart") that are collaborations between Haden and lyricist Arthur Hamilton. In addition, there are two chamber music instrumentals, a Rachmaninoff "musical moment" and a Ravel prelude, arranged for the date by Broadbent. The album ends with two gems, "Theme For Charlie," a compositional gift given to Haden in the mid '80s by family friend pianist-vocalist Jeri Southern, and "Wayfaring Stranger," which features Haden making his vocal debut on a recording with a touching rendition of the traditional folk tune.
The outing proves to be yet another triumph for Haden's Quartet West, a Los Angeles-based group he formed in 1986. It features Broadbent on piano, Ernie Watts on tenor saxophone and Larance Marable, who replaced charter member Billy Higgins after the acoustic quartet's eponymous debut album, on drums. The group, which has recorded such superb Verve albums as Quartet West (1986) In Angel City (1988), the Grammy" nominated Haunted Heart (1991), Always Say Goodbye (1994) and Now Is the Hour (1996), is one of the few rare groups in jazz that has continued to perform as an ensemble over a long stretch of time (Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio with Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette is another).
"We have developed an intuitive sense musically and spiritually," says Haden. "Just like the Modern Jazz Quartet, we've developed a sound that has come from playing together for a long time. Today many CD�s are recorded by thrown together all-star bands or groups whose personnel is always changing and who never perform together long enough to develop their own sound. We've become very close so that our music is all about inspiration."
While Haden has been actively involved in a number of different projects since forming Quartet West - including leading his own Liberation Music Orchestra, engaging in intimate duo recordings with Hank Jones, Kenny Barron and Pat Metheny and performing as a sideman with a range of artists from drummer Ginger Baker to pop chanteuse Rickie Lee Jones - he uses the group as his home base. "That made it easier for us to pull this album together as quickly as we did," says Haden.
The project got underway in December 1998 with Haden choosing songs and contacting Horn and Henderson to see if they were interested in working on the album. "Shirley doesn't usually work on other people's recordings, but she really liked what I was doing, so she agreed to come to Los Angeles," Haden says. "Bill lives out here. He's one of the best male vocalists, yet he's not as well-known as he should be because he also has a movie and television acting career. He was also excited about getting involved."
Once Horn and Henderson agreed on the four songs they would each sing (to augment Haden's choices, the former suggested adding Kern's "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" to the mix while the latter selected "Why Did I Choose You" from the Broadway show "The Yearling"), Broadbent developed the arrangements and the recording began in mid-February 1999. "The sessions went beautifully," Haden recalls. "All these songs are first takes with no overdubs. Usually when you record an album that uses a 30-piece string section, you record the strings first and everyone overdubs their solos onto the orchestra tracks. But I don't like to do that. So everyone was in the studio together recording at the same time."
Since Broadbent was conducting the chamber orchestra, he was reluctant at first to solo. But Haden persisted in his request, insisting that he didn't want overdubs of any kind on the album. "I pleaded with Alan to please try. I said the same thing to Ernie. And they both played great." (Broadbent's brilliance on the keys is evident on his own tune "Scenes From A Silver Screen," Watts' spotlight performance is on the Ravel piece "Pr�lude en la mineur" and the leader himself shines on "Why Did I Choose You.")
As for the inclusion of the Rachmoninoff "Moments Musicaux, Opus 16, #3 in B minor," Haden says it's one of his favorite classical piano pieces that he wanted to hear with string orchestration. He played it for Broadbent, who in turn shared with Haden the Ravel composition, which had actually been written by the composer for a student competition in 1913. As for the Jeri Southern tune, "Theme for Charlie," Haden says that he brought it to the sessions at the last minute thinking that perhaps Broadbent and Watts could render the number as a duet. But the pianist-arranger returned the next day with a full string arrangement for it.
While Haden concedes that he was hesitant to record the vocals for"Wayfaring Stranger," (a song his mother used to sing on the radio in the family folk-gospel band that played the Grand Ole Opry), Shirley Horn convinced him that the end result belonged on the album. His rendition ends the recording on a moving personal note. "Well, I really just talk through the lyrics," he says self-effacingly. "I've been looking for an opportunity to record this song for years and if my singing hadn�t worked, I would have ended up playing the melody on the bass."
What inspired him to sing the tune? A few years ago Haden appeared on Terry Gross' National Public Radio show, "Fresh Air" to talk about his Now Is the Hour CD. While explaining why he chose the songs, Haden noted that he remembered hearing the title tune on the radio as a child and crying. Gross persuaded him to sing it on the air. "Terry asked me to sing it and I said, 'Are you kidding me?' but she persisted so I did," Haden recalls. "She was in Philadelphia and I was in Los Angeles at the time. Right after the interview, Terry called the studio where I was and said, �Your voice really sounded beautiful. You should sing on your next record.� I told her, �You must be puttin� me on,� but I thanked her for the compliment, and said I�d think about it."
When Haden was preparing to record The Art of the Song, he told his longtime friend and executive producer Jean-Philippe Allard of his intention to sing a number. "Jean-Philippe was in Paris and we were talking on the telephone," Haden laughingly recalls. "When I told him I might sing, there was a pause and then he kept saying 'Pardon?' He was flipping out. But when he heard the tape, he was so happy I had done it."
In Keepnews' liner notes, he extols Haden's "widely varied celebrations of the art of the song" as "music that wears well, that gains in richness and emotional strength as we become increasingly at home with it." He adds that Haden's choice of repertoire represents some basic truths "... that good music not only lasts forever, but stays fresh forever; that lyricism is one of its key qualities; and that if you want to do a first-class job, it pays to get the best people to join you." Later Keepnews notes that Haden told him he considers The Art of the Song to be his best album to date.
"That's right, I love this album," says Haden. "It�s one of my favorites. Everyone involved put a lot of love into making this music and I hope many people have a chance to hear this record. It's not just for fans of jazz. I try to make music that extends beyond categories and this album is for all kinds of audiences that love quality music."
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Royal Theatre