Charlie Haden Quartet West - The Art Of The Song

Styles:  Jazz
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:26
Size: 161,7 MB
Art: Front

(5:30)  1. Lonely Town
(7:23)  2. Why Did I Choose You
(5:36)  3. Moment Musicale Opus 16 No. 3 In B Minor
(5:04)  4. In Love In Vain
(4:14)  5. Ruth's Waltz
(6:23)  6. Scenes From A Silver Screen [Instrumental]
(6:15)  7. I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life
(4:23)  8. You My Love
(5:13)  9. Prelude En La Mineur
(6:55) 10. The Folks Who Live On The Hill
(4:54) 11. Easy On The Heart
(4:06) 12. Theme For Charlie
(4:23) 13. Wayfaring Stranger

Increasingly mired in nostalgia, Charlie Haden's Quartet West plunges further into the dream world of old movies and postwar domesticity in this down-tempo album of ballads, this time with the vocal help of Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson on four numbers apiece. But if you must find a focal point, this album is mainly a showcase for the string chamber orchestra arrangements of Haden's pianist Alan Broadbent, who has turned in far more imaginative charts for this group than the velvety muzak heard here. Even classical piano pieces are fair game as Broadbent produces mournful orchestrations of Rachmaninoff's Moment Musical Op. 16, No. 3 in B Minor and Ravel's Prelude in A Minor. In a rare latter-day visit to the recording studio, Henderson is frequently off-key and shaky, though his distinctive blues timbre is intact. 

But the subtle, conversational Horn is right at home in this late-night lounge idiom, particularly when she revives an obscure Nat Cole single, Cy Coleman's "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life." Tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts sounds fairly listless and bland in tone most of the time, Larance Marable is limited mostly to brushes, and Haden confines his robust tone mostly to simple basic accompaniment. And if you want real nostalgia, Haden reaches all the way back to his Midwestern childhood by singing the folk song "Wayfarin' Stranger" in a lost-sounding, threadbare voice. Frankly, this sounds like the work of a weary musician. ~ Richard S. Ginell  http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-art-of-the-song-mw0000668250

Personnel: Charlie Haden (vocals, bass); Shirley Horn, Bill Henderson (vocals); Don Palmer, Marcy Vaj, Russ Cantor, Robert Sanov, Ezra Kliger, Robert Brosseau, Tibor Zelig, Murray Adler, Kathleen Robinson, Gina Kronstadt, Rachel Sokolow, Francine Walsh, Israel Baker, Robert Peterson, Paul Shure, Bobby Bruce, Charlie Bisharat (violin); Mimi Granat, Paolo Gozzetti, Carol Mukagawa, Suzanna Giordono, Steve Gordon, Harry Shirinian (viola); Jerry Kessler, Ray Kelley, Earl Madison, Suzie Katayama, Larry Corbett (cello); Ernie Watts (tenor saxophone); Alan Broadbent (piano); Larance Marable (drums).
 

R.I.P.
(August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014)

The Art Of The Song

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