{"id":4537,"date":"2014-08-06T15:18:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T15:18:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2014-08-06T15:27:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-06T15:27:47","slug":"a-review-charlie-haden-and-keith-jarretts-last-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4537","title":{"rendered":"A review: Charlie Haden and Keith Jarrett’s “Last Dance”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Keith Jarrett\/Charlie Haden Last Dance<\/em> (ECM)<\/strong><\/p>\n

What did they know when they titled the last recording released before Haden\u2019s death on July 11? That his boyhood polio had returned, fatally as it turned out. Polio long ago robbed his young singing voice. So he became perhaps the most songful of bassists. That instrumental voice captures the nostalgia of \u201cMy Old Fame\u201d with the gruff huskiness of a burly romantic , whispering the song in her imagined ear, or dancing in his dreams — an uncertain step or two, then finding his inner Astaire.<\/p>\n

The rhythmic poise carries a resounding, muscular\u00a0 tone — Haden dwelled in the bass fiddle\u2019s natural depths, rather than trying to make it zip around like a guitar, as so many contemporary bassists try to.<\/p>\n

So he became one of the best duets players ever, going back the quiet revelation of these musicians\u2019 duets on Haden\u2019s 1976 recording Closeness. <\/em>Nobody listened or responded more closely than Charlie Haden. In this 2007 session, he fleshes out pianist Jarrett\u2019s every lyrical turn of phrase with splendid harmony, or spare countermelody. Some striking substitute chords make the overplayed Round Midnight<\/em> beam like a new moon.<\/p>\n

Haden\u2019s extended solo on \u201cWhere Can I Go Without You?\u201d magnificently extends the melodic contours and the meaning of the song as if the rhetorical question had been deposited directly in the heart of the listener.<\/p>\n

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Pianist Keith Jarrett (left) and the bassist Charlie Haden, who died July 11, take a break during the sessions that produced “Last Dance.” Courtesy amazon.com\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet his epitaph might be another standard, \u201cEverything Happens to Me.\u201d Not as a solipsistic whine, this was a humble man. Rather, he was person who lived a full creative life, embracing all life\u2019s wonders, cruelty and strangeness with his artful gifts and passion for justice, while battling the infidels of his body and spirit, to the end.<\/p>\n

Haden could also swing and fast-walk the bass buoyantly, as on Bud Powell\u2019s \u201cDance of the Infidels.\u201d Last Dance<\/em>\u2019s uninvited infidel was polio,* and by the time it ends — with \u201cEvery Time We Say Goodbye\u201d and then \u201cGoodbye\u201d — you know how he and Jarrett hate saying goodbye, and yet can\u2019t stop saying it, and singing it.<\/p>\n

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A somewhat shorter version of this review was published first in the Shepherd Express.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* Haden died of post-polio syndrome. He had contracted polio as a child.<\/p>\n

Some of this material was part of a CC obituary profile of Haden at\u00a0https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4420<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keith Jarrett\/Charlie Haden Last Dance (ECM) What did they know when they titled the last recording released before Haden\u2019s death on July 11? That his boyhood polio had returned, fatally as it turned out. Polio long ago robbed his young … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-1bb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4552,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions\/4552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}