Alex Henderson

Charlie Haden
 
By Alex Henderson
 
Charlie Haden is no stranger to Latin music. It was Haden who, in 1969, founded the Liberation Music Orchestra, a visionary, unapologetically political outfit that combined avant-garde jazz with both Spanish and Cuban influences. Nonetheless, Nocturne demonstrates that at 63, the veteran acoustic bassist is still quite capable of finding new things to say in the Latin realm. Produced with the acclaimed Cuban-born pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Nocturne marks the first time that Haden has devoted an entire album to boleros—the sensuous, romantic ballads that have moved Latin America for generations. Haden isn’t the first jazz artist to interpret boleros, but jazz albums that have focused on boleros exclusively are a rarity.

“Originally, Gonzalo and I wanted to do an album that combined American ballads and Cuban ballads,” explains Haden, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife, singer Ruth Cameron. “I love boleros, and Gonzalo loves American standards like ‘Body and Soul’ and ‘All the Things You Are.’ But there were so many beautiful Cuban ballads we wanted to record that we ended up forgetting about the American ballads. We ended up concentrating on boleros exclusively.”

When Haden and Rubalcaba first started making plans to record Nocturne, they envisioned an album of standards. The songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and other great American composers would have been heard alongside the boleros of great Latino composers like Arturo Castro, Cesar Portillo de La Luz, Marta Valdes, Martin Rojas and Maria Teresa Lara. But it occurred to Haden that while those composers are famous in Latin America, they aren’t as well known in the U.S. as they deserve to be—and he saw Nocturne as an opportunity to show non-Latin listeners how great their songs are. So on Nocturne, you won’t hear anything by Kern or Gershwin, but you will hear Haden and Rubalcaba offering lush interpretations of Castro’s “Yo Sin Ti” and Rojas’ “En la Orilla del Mundo.” You will hear guest Pat Metheny taking an acoustic guitar solo on Lara’s “Noche de Ronda” and tenor saxophonist David Sanchez (himself a Puerto Rican) being featured on Valdes’ “No Te Empeñes” and Osvaldo Farres’ “Tres Palabras.”

 “In the United States, you don’t hear these boleros very much,” Haden notes. “People in Cuba and Mexico—especially Cuba—know these songs, but people in the United States don’t know them. They know American standards; they know about Jerome Kern, George Gershwin and Cole Porter, but they don’t know a lot of the Cuban ballads that are standards in Cuba.”

Although Haden is quite knowledgeable of Latin music, Nocturne turned out to be a learning experience for the veteran bassist. Nocturne was meant to spotlight the Cuban bolero tradition, and much of the time, it does. But when Haden read the liner notes—which were written by Latin music expert Leonardo Acosta—he discovered that four of the boleros actually came out of Mexico: Lara’s "Noche de Ronda,” Castro’s "Yo Sin Ti," Sabre Marroquin & Jose Mojica’s “Nocturnal" and Armando Manzanero’s "El Ciego." In Mexico, composers have put their own spin on the Cuban bolero tradition—just as Mexican musicians have successfully adopted such rhythms as Cuban son and Columbian cumbia.

“When I started recording this album, I had no idea that any of these composers were Mexican,” Haden recalls. “All I knew was that the melodies were beautiful.”

Nocturne also includes a few original compositions, all of them boleros. On this CD, Rubalcaba’s “Transparence” and two Haden pieces (“Moonlight” and “Nightfall”) are perfectly at home with the time-honored Cuban and Mexican boleros that the jazzmen interpret.

When Haden and Rubalcaba produced Nocturne, they carefully selected musicians who have both jazz and Latin credentials, including drummer/percussionist Ignacio Berroa, violinist Federico Britos Ruiz and tenor saxophonist David Sanchez (a hard bopper who is well versed in both Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms). Guitarist Pat Metheny, featured on Lara’s “Noche de Ronda,” is famous for his love of Brazilian music. And the eclectic Joe Lovano—a broad-minded saxman who has never shied away from a musical challenge—brings his distinctive tenor sax to Rojas’ “En la Orilla del Mundo”as well as “Moonlight,” “Transparence” and a medley that combines Cesar Portillo de La Luz’s “Contigo en la Distancia” with Tania Castellanos’ “En Nosotros.”

For Haden and Rubalcaba, Nocturne is the latest chapter in a friendship that goes back to the 1980s. Born in Havana, Cuba on May 27, 1963, Rubalcaba was only 23 when he first met Haden. The bassist recalls: “In 1986, my Liberation Music Orchestra was invited to play at the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana. One of the bands that was playing was called Grupo Proyecto; Gonzalo was the pianist, and when he took a solo, my wife Ruth and I almost fell off our chairs. I met Gonzalo backstage, and we became very close friends. I wanted to bring him to the United States to play with me, although I couldn’t at the time because of the embargo.”

Haden quickly became one of Rubalcaba’s strongest supporters, helping arrange an appearance at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada in 1989. Haden sang the pianist’s praises to Blue Note Records, and Rubalcaba signed with the famous jazz label in the early 1990s. Not surprisingly, Haden was Rubalcaba’s first choice when, in 1991, he needed a bassist for his first Blue Note studio date, The Blessing.

In 2001, Rubalcaba turns 38. But the acclaimed pianist wasn’t even born when Haden first made his mark in the jazz world. Born in Shenandoah, Illinois on August 6, 1937, Haden moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and before long, he was being employed as a sideman by such West Coast heavyweights as saxman Art Pepper and pianist Hampton Hawes. It was in 1959 that he joined forces with one of jazz’s most innovative—and controversial—musicians: alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman. From 1959-1961, Haden was a member of the trailblazing Ornette Coleman Quartet, which also included drummer Billy Higgins and the late trumpeter Don Cherry. Termed “free jazz,” Coleman’s innovations had a major influence on jazz’s avant-garde in the 1960s.

But even though Haden’s work with Coleman was an inspiration to avant-garde bassists, he was never one to play free jazz exclusively. A highly versatile improviser, Haden is as comfortable with swinging hard bop and romantic ballads as he is with cutting-edge avant-garde experiments. One of Haden’s most ambitious undertakings was the very political Liberation Music Orchestra, which in 1970, recorded arrangements of songs from the Spanish Civil War as well as “Song for Che,” an ode to the late Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

Haden’s romantic side asserted itself in 1986, when he formed the Quartet West—a unique bop group that has celebrated the music and films of the 1940s. Between songs, the Quartet West often provides snippets of old 1940s recordings and creates a very nostalgic atmosphere. The group’s original lineup included half of Ornette Coleman’s 1959-1961 quartet; Haden and drummer Billy Higgins (later replaced by Larance Marable) were joined by pianist Alan Broadbent and tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts. But the Quartet West’s lyrical, atmospheric romanticism is a far cry from Coleman’s revolutionary free jazz. And with Nocturne, Haden is once again showing us his romantic side—although he does it from a Latin perspective this time.

 “I really hope everyone loves this album because I enjoy bringing something new to audiences,” Haden asserts.“ Here in the United States, a lot of people who listen to jazz haven’t heard these beautiful boleros—and I love being able to help people discover something they might not know about.”♦♦♦