Charlie Haden and Fire Music

[ep1str0phy]

A series of factors have led me to more closely examine Charlie Haden's recorded output recently, not least of which is my fiancee's unbelievable enthusiasm for the first, epic Liberation Music Orchestra Album--probably for me the most perfect blend of the JCOA axis's heavily arranged, often baroque ensemble music and fire-ish, free rhythm 60's improvising. A lot of the success of that first LMO album has to do, in my estimation, with Charlie Haden's very self-contained (that is, "personally" idiomatic) bass playing--multi-stops, strumming, shifting pedals, etc.

I've heard a lot of free-school bass players rip in to Haden's technique, and I can understand this--he isn't a terribly flashy technician, and there are a lot of fine "ear" bassists that have integrated into Ornette's music with more impressive dexterity (LaFaro, Izenzon--hell, Tacuma, MacDowell). I'll admit to being partial to Haden's folkish self-containedness, though, since it's one of those idioms that can be sort of superimposed onto anything and color said anything with a very clear sense of personality. (Or maybe I'm just sick of blunt, colorless technique... no knock to the aforementioned or any free bass players I haven't mentioned--just a general feeling. The opposite of all this is someone like Barry Guy, who has ridiculous technique and sounds like Barry Guy no matter where he goes. He probably buys coffee like Barry Guy.)

Here, though, I'm mainly curious about opinions on Haden's free playing in more typical "fire music" settings--if only because the recorded evidence is so rare and his playing is soooo different from what any other free bassist was doing at the time. A bit of this crops up in more familiar settings--his apocalyptic wrangling with Denardo on the heartstopping Crisis comes to mind, since that album has something outside of a typical Ornette ensemble "sound"--but it's in really strong evidence on only a a handful of albums: the first LMO album, Gato Barbieri's The Third World, Archie Shepp's Mama Too Tight, Alan Shorter's Orgasm, Roswell Rudd's Everywhere, (to a lesser extent:) some of Keith Jarrett's freer stuff, Don Cherry's Brown Rice, Leo Smith's Divine Love, and a few other things I've doubtless failed to mention.

The bookending tracks on Orgasm are brilliant essays in what can make free jazz rhythm sections truly interesting. Muhammad Ali's time is intensely loose and Haden's apparent tendency is to lock the time in, so the effect is something akin to The Empty Foxhole or other work with Denardo--a really fascinating sort of push-and-pull. Ali is free to power through without operating with any sort of metronomic imperative--it's actually Haden who is the propulsive force, since that shifting pedal thing he does is what produces the forward momentum. With a drummer like Blackwell or Higgins, it could sound like a free fall--fast, intense, and dangerous, with a definite direction and just the right hint of danger. With a guy like Ali, though, it sounds more like steamrolling--moving, moving, moving, but with a clear sense of tension and violence.

Anyway, I wish Haden had done more work like this in the past. Not to take away from anything he's done since or, of course, his classic work with Ornette or the Jarrett quartet, but this kind of music is just fun to listen to.

[jlhoots]

FWIW I'm a big fan of Haden's playing in all of the contexts you've mentioned.

[JSngry]

I've heard a lot of free-school bass players rip in to Haden's technique...

Fine. When they can get the tone our of the instrument that Haden does, then I'll pay attention to them about that.

Tone first. Everything else follows from that. Otherwise its not sound, it's math. Or something.

But not music.

[ep1str0phy]

Actually, Jim, I kind of vibe that as being a problem of a lot of post-80's free players in general, for whatever reason. Tons of technique and facility, less full-bore originality or personality. Like anything else, the context and the vocabulary have been learned, so there has to be some ossifying agent in there.

Paradoxically, it's like the more options that have been discovered for soundmaking, the harder it is to sound like "yourself"... I recall Keith Jarrett kind of backhand complimenting Haden on not reaching outside of his technique, and there is some truth to that in a very positive sense.

[JohnT]

Agree with JSngry, it's the tone. The sound he gets out of each note is pure pleasure. I once went to a master class with Haden. He told us to play each note as if it was the last note we would ever play and you can hear that in his playing. I wish I had 1/10th of his tone!!!!

[RDK]

I don't understand what you guys are saying musicologically, but Haden's been one of my favorite bassists since I first started listening to jazz 30 years ago now.

[Guy Berger]

Haden is commanding on the first two Paul Motian albums, playing in a free-ish mode.

[AndrewHill]

I agree on tone, especially on Ornette's Science Fiction; he just hits all the right notes and his playing is some of the best playing I've heard of his anywhere else. Second what he does on Everywhere and Orgasm too; he just manages to get a great sound out of his bass, almost like he can get in between notes, for lack of a better way to describe it. In that regard, not that they are alike, but Paul Chambers can get an amazing tone out of his bass too.

[MomsMobley]

A few points:

* "fire music"? I don't care if Shepp had the title, sounds like white boy romantic bullshit, a FALSE distinction, oooh, they so "free" and so fucking "spiritual" being a record collector ass crack excuse for actually knowing VERY little about American history, recorded and otherwise. Read Frederick Douglass' 4th of July speech and come back to me about... "fire music," hardee har har. (Euripides "The Trojan Women" and Wagner "Gotterdamerung" might also suffice.)

* what "free" clowns disrespect Charlie Haden?

* at his worst, he got old and dull and if I wasn't typing this from a truck stop in Emporia, Kansas I'd love to build a pyre of nothing but goddamn Jarrett/Haden duo cds and if anyone wants to throw Charlie's later Verve sides on the fire, I wouldn't stop 'em.

* Hampton Hawes + Charlie Haden >>>>> all "fire music" pn + bs combined, real + imagined.

* Verdict: Charlie is more than alright but so is Buell Niedlinger; I wonder what "fire music" knuckleheads have to say about him?

ep1: I'm bemused but always impressed with your taxonomic rigor on these things thus surprised you'd bandy about romantic, obfuscating, limited and limiting claptrap like "fire music" around.

You want "fire music"? HERE is some goddamn FIRE MUSIC--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJOWQMWSFE

[Hoppy T. Frog]

* "fire music"? I don't care if Shepp had the title, sounds like white boy romantic bullshit, a FALSE distinction, oooh, they so "free" and so fucking "spiritual"

I think "The Wire" (the magazine, not the TV show)coined that term, so yeah, that sounds about right. See also: "post-rock", "trip-hop", "new weird America", "hypnogogic pop", "hauntology" etc. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Edited October 10, 2010 by Hoppy T. Frog

[ep1str0phy]

A few points:

* "fire music"? I don't care if Shepp had the title, sounds like white boy romantic bullshit, a FALSE distinction, oooh, they so "free" and so fucking "spiritual" being a record collector ass crack excuse for actually knowing VERY little about American history, recorded and otherwise. Read Frederick Douglass' 4th of July speech and come back to me about... "fire music," hardee har har. (Euripides "The Trojan Women" and Wagner "Gotterdamerung" might also suffice.)

* what "free" clowns disrespect Charlie Haden?

* at his worst, he got old and dull and if I wasn't typing this from a truck stop in Emporia, Kansas I'd love to build a pyre of nothing but goddamn Jarrett/Haden duo cds and if anyone wants to throw Charlie's later Verve sides on the fire, I wouldn't stop 'em.

* Hampton Hawes + Charlie Haden >>>>> all "fire music" pn + bs combined, real + imagined.

* Verdict: Charlie is more than alright but so is Buell Niedlinger; I wonder what "fire music" knuckleheads have to say about him?

ep1: I'm bemused but always impressed with your taxonomic rigor on these things thus surprised you'd bandy about romantic, obfuscating, limited and limiting claptrap like "fire music" around.

You want "fire music"? HERE is some goddamn FIRE MUSIC--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLJOWQMWSFE

Keep in mind I'd only use the fire music thing since it tends to denote something that has at least some socially-agreed-upon significance (i.e., 70's electric Miles generally not fire music, Archie Shepp probably fire music). I don't really give about the term, though--I recall that Trane radio documentary saying that the title was Archie's but the right was Trane's... so this is an instance of taxonomic rigor totally collapsing/laziness, since there are obviously problems with the "free" thing, too...

As far as Haden bashing is concerned--I know an equal number of players with nothing but good things to say about his playing--though that has nothing to do with his general artistic choices, questionable as they have been to certain parties as of late. I'm not sure that "star" status has really helped anyone's reputation in the trenches.

For my part, I favor his playing over most free bassists in really open situations, though I'll take Malachi, Fred Hopkins, Harry Miller, Mbizo, Barry Guy (and even Gary Peacock, despite his particular career trajectory--he catches a lot of negative press, too) on any number of days. Haden is a fine straight ahead player, for sure, but he really sparkles when the music is weird... compare, even, the new duets album with the Jarrett duet on Closeness--beautiful stuff, but a lot of that has to do with the musicians blending into this very personal, very well-defined, folksy/rubato idiom (rather than your basic jazz balladry). (And those duet albums are a testament to Haden's improvising versatility, which is out of the toolbox less and less these days.)

[clifford_thornton]

not least of which is my fiancee's unbelievable enthusiasm for the first,

CONGRATS!

[ep1str0phy]

not least of which is my fiancee's unbelievable enthusiasm for the first,

CONGRATS!

Oh yeah--thanks!

[fomafomic65]

not least of which is my fiancee's unbelievable enthusiasm for the first,

CONGRATS!

That was my first thought too.

Congrats; envy.