Charlie Haden's Liberation

When a man can list Plastic Ono Band and Free Jazz in his discography, the importance and immense talent of that individual should be come immediate and apparent. Charlie Haden is that guy. It’s difficult to think that during the late ‘50s the bass player would be helping to cement what avant garde jazz would become, but then just ten years later participate in the recording of an album that sported two members of the Beatles. That’s just crazy. But, of course, that speaks to the talent of this bassist. And apart from aMingus and Haden most passing jazz fans would have trouble summoning another basser’s name. That might be part and parcel with the role that the instrument has played in western music, but it might just be because this is Charlie Haden.

Again, working with the busied Coleman groups of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s while also tossing some time in with Coltrane amongst others, Haden wasn’t able to record a date that he (kinda) led until ’69 – Liberation Music Orchestra. Even then this player relied on the considerable talents that he surrounded himself with. Haden may have composed two of the nine tracks here, but the lion’s share of song writing fell on the shoulders of pianist Carla Bley. And it’s actually pretty clear from taking a listen to the disc that a key twinkler basically helmed the reins here musically.

It’s not that the disc is overtly focused on the piano, but the rumbling chords that lay down a back drop for everything to follow suite – Don Cherry’s coronet, Dewey Redman’s sax and Roswell Rudd’s trombone – is noticeable. Haden’s bowed instrument at times adds another droning tone to the superfluous mess of sound that this ensemble is able to coax out of its instruments and while he’s undoubtedly an indispensible part of this group, he’s not the star.

Again, Bley helming the compositional duties might get a look as a proper date leader, but the horns and reeds on this disc are really what makes Liberation Music Orchestra what it is. Haden’s name being affixed to the date probably helped sales a bit and while this disc has it’s ‘out’ moments, they aren’t exactly what folks would have expected from the bass player.

Judging from the cover of the disc – and moreover the music that it holds – the group here attempts to work in some political thought atop of its cacophonous jazzbo sounds. The disc – and its title – are obviously a poignant discussion of a country’s internal strife. The twenty minute center piece of the disc is ample example of that. But there are better times to be had as explicated on “The Ending to the First Side.” It might be a dicey title, but the lopping melody of that track which the band seems to effortlessly arrive at should lend listeners (from then and now) some sort of hope for whatever tomorrow might bring. There might be a bit of rough patches, but it’ll wind up working out. Cop Liberation Music Orchestra and play it along to the next four years of American political discourse.