THE LANDFILL CHRONICLES — Charlie Haden Takes the Blindfold Plunge (Part 3)
Dan Ouellette’s The Landfill Chronicles — Pivotal Conversations on Eclectic Music Elevated to a State of Art (the archival conversation memoirs by Dan Ouellette published at Medium)
THE LANDFILL CHRONICLES — Dan Ouellette’s book-in-progress on Medium. The entire book will be available in print in 2024 on Cymbal Press.
Link to Part 1 of the Charlie Haden chapter:
https://link.medium.com/AdziE3FgRFb
Link to Part 2 of the Charlie chapter:
https://link.medium.com/6VrCdkr2TFb
CHARLIE GETS DOWNBEAT BLINDFOLDED — TWICE
Why the Blindfold Test is so revealing. It is not a big push for a new album or a battling of wits with an obnoxious journalist quizzing an artist with inane questions that could easily be answered by a wiki post. Blindfolding means just that. Playing a track of music to elicit reflections on the nature of the tune and the musicians who set it free to the universe of sound. The Blindfoldee gets to talk about what he or she loves to talk about: music and more music!
DownBeat Live Blindfold Test Monterey Jazz Festival 1997
Here’s my first encounter with Charlie for a live DownBeat Blindfold Test in 1997. Always a favorite at the Monterey Jazz Festival, he’s an eager participant for what is his first BFT. Entertaining, opinionated, wise to the bone. The crowd loves his every word.
Charles Mingus
“II B.S.” (from Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus, Impulse, rec. 1963/1995) Mingus, bass; Jaki Byard, piano; Eddie Preston, Richard Williams, trumpets; Britt Woodman, trombone; Don Butterfield, tuba; Eric Dolphy, alto sax, flute; Jerome Richardson, Dick Hafer, Booker Ervin, saxophones; Walter Perkins, drums.
I love listening to musicians I love and respect. Mingus was a great composer and musician and a very strong human being. I think this piece is beautiful. It’s worth more than 5 stars. More like a 100. I played in the first Mingus Dynasty Band. Sue Mingus asked me to play, and it was an honor. The first rehearsal was at the Mingus apartment at the Manhattan Plaza. As I took my bass out of its case, I felt this presence. I turned around, and there was this portrait of Charlie on the wall.
Mingus used to call me Bass. We were both playing in Miami once, and he called me in my hotel room. He said, “Bass, they’ve got a terrible bass here for me to play. Can i borrow yours?” I said, “Man, you can have my instrument.” Five stars for this.
Rob Wasserman
“Dustin’ Off the Bass” (from Trios, MCA/GRP, 1994) Wasserman, Willie Dixon, Clevinger basses; Al Duncan, drums.
Oh my goodness. I’m not going to attempt to say who this is. I really don’t listen to that many bass players. But this person is a great musician with great intonation, great sound, great ideas, imagination and creativity. I really loved it. Stars? 5. And a half. I know the tune, but I can’t think of the name of it. I’ve played it before, but it’s been a long time. The way this is rendered shows the dedication and devotion to playing beautiful music. Nothing like a good sense of humor. That’s beautiful. I love hearing humor in music. And I like the title, “Dustin’ Off the Bass.” I have no idea who this is, but I really like it. They’re having a lot of fun, and their time is really strong. They’re playing this song like it’s meaningful to them. That’s important. 5 stars. It’s Willie Dixon? Yeah, that’s him singing all right. He was a great bass player.
Milt Hinton
“Indiana (Back Home Again in Indiana)” (from Laughing at Life, Columbia, 1995) Hinton, bass; Richard Wyands, piano; Dave Ratajczak, drums.
There are probably only two bass players that this could be. One is Milt Hinton. I think that’s who it is. His intonation on the bass is very deep and recognizable to me. Plus, no one slaps the bass the way he does. Milt is the only person i could tolerate hearing this tune, “Back Home Again in Indiana.” This melody has been played straight so many times. I like to play a standard without playing the melody. Sometimes I’ll just improvise on a piece and maybe play the melody at the end, if at all. But Milt can do whatever he wants to.
We were judging the bass competition at the Thelonious Monk Institute in Washington, D.C. a few years ago. We were in a limo on the way to the competition, and I guess I was staring at him. It was embarrassing. Milt said, “Charlie, what are you staring at?” and I said, “Man, I want to do everything you do. I want to take the vitamins you take, the food you eat. Whatever you do, I want to do.” Milt cracked up. Oh, yeah, stars: easily 105.
Ron Carter
“Mr. Bow Tie” (from Mr. Bow Tie, Blue Note, 1995) Carter, bass; Gonzalo Rubalcaba, piano; Lewis Nash, drums; Steve Kroon, percussion.
Well, first of all, the bass was mixed too loud. It’s probably Ron Carter. On piano, that’s Gonzalo Rubalcaba. The piece was nice. It sounds like it could have been written by Gonzalo. Maybe it’s a Cuban song. I love Gonzalo. He takes a lot of care and listens while he’s playing. On this track, he’s playing very thoughtfully and with a gentleness and stillness. He has the ability to play with tenderness, then strength, then emotion. That’s rare in the ’90s when rock and pop keep pushing the volume up and up and up and even jazz is getting louder and louder. Pretty soon we won’t be able to hear the humanness in the instruments.
The first time I heard Gonzalo play I was in Cuba with my Liberation Music Orchestra. After we went on, this group played with a 23-year-old kid on electric piano. When he started to solo, i thought, what is that? I went backstage and told him through a translator that I’d love to play music with him. The next day just the two of us went into a studio in Havana and played all day.
I’ll give this piece 5 stars for Gonzalo. The tune on the whole was nice, but what impressed me was Gonzalo’s inspiration and improvisation.
Ray Brown
“Mack the Knife” (from Super Bass, Telarc Jazz, 1997) Brown, John Clayton, Christian McBride, basses
That’s Ray Brown. And there’s Christian McBride. And the third bassist is John Clayton. Well, I love them all. They’re all great musicians, and they play with a lot of love, tenderness and joy. Ray was one of my heroes ever since I heard him play with Charlie Parker. Listening to Ray and Kenny Clarke together was like hearing the waves on the ocean. Christian is one of the young musicians i really admire. I hear a lot of young musicians today, but few like Christian are playing with much innovation. I first heard John Clayton when I was a judge at a Notre Dame Collegiate Festival. John was with a university band, and I judged him the best musician of the entire festival.
It’s tough trying to hear who’s who when three bassists are playing together. The sound is kind of dark. On this tune, they’re all playing in the same register. But when Ray went up into a higher register, I could immediately hear his melodic identity. As for Christian and John, I guessed them because i knew Ray had made a record with them. Stars? For those three bass players, all of whom really strive to get a beautiful sound on their instruments, it has to be 100.
DownBeat Live Blindfold IAJE Convention 2005
In DownBeat’s fifth annual live Blindfold Test at the 2005 International Association for Jazz Educators annual convention in Long Beach, Calif., Charlie listened, reflected and weighed in on music by bass players recorded within the last decade. This was Charlie’s second live Blindfold Test with me in front of an audience.
Ron Carter
“N.Y. Slick” (from The Golden Striker, Blue Note, 2003) Carter, bass; Mulgrew Miller, piano; Russell Malone, guitar.
I love the sound that all three musicians get out of their instruments, and I love the way they play together. It reminds me Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown with either Herb Ellis or Jim Hall. But I have some styling doubts about this being Ray Brown. The way the pianist plays those beautiful voicings with his left hand while he was soloing with his right makes me feel real close to Oscar. Another person who did that was Ray Bryant and of course Horace Silver. But the person who really did it was John Lewis, but this isn’t Percy Heath.
I have never heard this song before, and it’s not something I would play. I’m an adagio guy, and that’s a little too cutesy pie for me. Not that I have anything against that. It reminds me of “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top.” Every time I hear that song I cringe, especially with the eighth notes played at the end of the phrase. It reminded me of when my parents had a farm. Every morning the chickens woke us up playing “Surrey.” But it’s difficult for me to tell who this is exactly because I don’t listen to things like this.
(After audience member guesses) Yes, that’s Mulgrew. I love his left hand. He uses sevenths and thirds in the bass line, which I love. Russell is a great guy with a great sense of humor, and I love Mr. Carter’s playing.
Dave Holland Big Band
“Happy Jammy” (from Overtime, Dare2/Sunnyside, 2005) Holland, bass; Antonio Hart, alto and soprano saxophone, flute; Mark Gross, alto saxophone; Chris Potter, tenor saxophone; Gary Smulyan, baritone saxophone; Robin Eubanks, Jonathan Arons, Josh Roseman, trombones; Taylor Haskins, Alex Sipiagin, Duane Eubanks, trumpets, flugelhorns; Steve Nelson, vibes; Billy Kilson, drums
This was very linear, a kind of abstract linear. The sound and the concept of the bass player was either Dave Holland or someone very influenced by him. When I first met Dave he was playing electric bass with Miles and played opposite Ornette’s band. It seemed to me that he took to the electric and was more comfortable playing that than when he picked up the acoustic bass. The way he plays acoustic is very linear, like how you hear electric bassists playing melodies. Remember, I’m not saying this is bad. I’m not being judgmental because who am I? I don’t believe in judging anybody else’s creative output. That’s not my job. I have enough just to play the bass, let alone talk about it.
I believe this is Dave’s big band. He’s a great musician. I admire him for trying to find something new in the music. That’s so important. I heard different approaches to harmonies, melodies and voicings that Dave does very well. It’s part of the way he hears music. It’s in his bass playing too. I’m glad there are people like Dave Holland in the world who are thinking and discovering new ways of playing music to make it more meaningful, pure and from the heart.
John Patitucci
“Chovendo No Roseira” (from Songs, Stories & Spirituals, Concord, 2003) Patitucci, bass; Luciana Souza, vocals; Ed Simon, piano; Brian Blade, drums
I have to admit I don’t have as much time as I used to for listening to music. I used to listen to music every day. Now I’m either playing or writing. After a strenuous day, Ruth and I sit down and listen to something beautiful like this to put our minds at rest before we go to bed. I have never heard this. It sounds Brazilian. The piano sounds influenced by Brad Mehldau, but I’m almost positive it isn’t. The bass sounds like he could be influenced by Larry Grenadier. But all that doesn’t really matter to this piece of music. What matters is the communication among the musicians and what gets communicated to the listener. It’s very pleasurable. I know this singer. I just can’t remember her name. I liked it. It’s very pleasant.
Avishai Cohen
“Come Together” (from Lyla, Stretch, 2003) Cohen, bass; Mark Guiliana, drums
This piece was completely unnecessary to me. There were repetitive chords, repeating over and over, without really going anywhere. And I don’t feel close to the bass being bowed except in classical music where a composer like Rachmaninoff wrote specifically for the bass. I’ve used a bow now and then, but this piece, I have no real association with it. I have nothing positive or negative to say. It’s just something you put on a record player.
(After being told it’s a Beatles’ song): I was in the studio with Ringo Starr for his last record Ringorama. He called me in to play jazz on my acoustic bass. After the session, Ringo said, “Charlie Haden doesn’t play jazz; he plays music.”
William Parker
“Goggles” (from In Order To Survive: Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy, Homestead, 1996) Parker, bass; Rob Brown, alto saxophone; Cooper Moore, piano; Susie Ibarra, drums
(A few minutes into the piece) OK, OK, that’s enough. It’s very difficult for me to listen to music that’s played out of tune. And it was such a repetitive motif behind the out-of-tune playing. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. I don’t know who William Parker is, or any of the other players. It’s not that I didn’t like it or I feel it’s bad. I either say I feel close to something or not. And I didn’t feel close to this at all.
Keith Jarrett Trio
“The Out-Of-Towners” (from The Out-Of-Towners, ECM, 2004) Jarrett, piano; Gary Peacock, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums.
Someone showed me a video in the early ’70s of me and Paul Motian playing with Keith Jarrett. I always play with my eyes closed so I never know what’s going on. But while Keith was singing or warbling or whatever it was, he was always looking at me. I thought maybe it was just one night, but he kept doing it. Paul told me, “For some reason what you were doing inspired him.” I used to call it, as if to a team of horses, whoooah.
I know this wasn’t me playing, so it could have been either Palle Danielson or Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. Keith doesn’t play with very many rhythm sections. I love Gary and Jack. Not too long ago, I played with Jack on Alice Coltrane’s record. It was nice to talk with him about the old times. And Gary is such a great musician and wonderful guy. But it’s really hard for me to listen to him in this trio because I keep hearing the bass notes I would have played instead.
The Lost Chords
“Red” (from The Lost Chords, ECM/WATT/32, 2004) Carla Bley, piano; Andy Sheppard, saxophone; Steve Swallow, electric bass; Billy Drummond. drums
I know who this is. It’s Carla Bley. I can tell by the way she’s playing. She’s very shy. She doesn’t think that she can play. She holds back a lot, but the truth of the matter is that she can really play and she shouldn’t hold back. She’s a great musician and pianist. Last summer we toured together and recorded a New Liberation Music Orchestra album. One of her songs, “Blue Anthem,” is incredible. Last summer, I had to talk her into taking a solo, and then she was glad she did.
I know that’s Steve Swallow on bass. When he switched to electric bass, it broke my heart and I called him and told him that. Steve said he wanted to play the electric. So, I said, “Will you still make a record with me someday that’s only acoustic?” He said, “Charlie, only with you.” So I still have to hold him to that. There’s something about Steve’s playing where I don’t identify the sound as an electric bass but as a completely other instrument that happens to be hooked up to an amp. It doesn’t sound like a regular electric bass. It sounds more like an acoustic-electric analog bass.
Discovering your own sound like that is what I tell my students at Cal Arts. You hear music different from anyone else and you create a different sound from anyone else. It’s really a miracle when you’re able to bring out the sound you hear in your soul through your instrument.
END OF BOOK