Michael Brecker’s tenor saxophone, alongside its declamatory pronouncements as well as keening high notes, commands attending throughout American Dreams, but Haden’s bass is at the bottom of the dreamy feeling that pervades all but 1 track.
Haden’s championship composition opens the album alongside the bassist playing a folk song-like tune over strings arranged inward rich layers yesteryear Alan Broadbent. As the strings fade, pianist Brad Mehldau introduces a 2nd melody. Haden interacts alongside Mehldau. Brian Blade skips brushes across drums as well as cymbals, crystal strokes against fourth dimension that’s equally soft equally the mood. Just a marking inward a higher house silence, the strings sideslip inward nether the trio, swelling equally Haden plant his agency dorsum into the offset subject as well as concludes a surgical operation of keen simplicity as well as beauty.
The orchestral writing on 6 pieces arranged yesteryear Broadbent as well as iii yesteryear Jeremy Lubbock is ripe alongside harmonic interest; on the 2 yesteryear Vince Mendoza sounds are to a greater extent than purely functional. Highlights include Broadbent’s scoring for violins as well as cellos on “America the Beautiful,” his paraphrase of the tune inward back upwards of Haden’s solo on “Young as well as Foolish” as well as Lubbock’s piece of employment alongside 2 ballads written yesteryear Dave Grusin alongside Alan as well as Marilyn Bergman. Lubbock’s mysterious ending on a 6th chord had me going dorsum several times to the determination of “It Might Be You.”
Accommodating himself to the strings, Mehldau minimizes the role of his left manus and, for the most part, plays sparely. He turns a duet of finger-bobble lemons into lemonade. Mehldau has satisfying solos on Don Sebesky’s “Bittersweet” (formerly called “You Can’t Go Home Again”) as well as Ornette Coleman’s “Bird Food.” The Coleman piece, a land of neobop, is the entirely uptempo quartet surgical operation on an album of reflective music but, somehow, it fits alongside the others-a chip of Haden magic.
This quartet-plus-strings session is Charlie Haden's paean to an ideal America, made during a fourth dimension that was ripe for such reflections. The band, alongside Haden on bass, Michael Brecker on tenor, Brad Mehldau on piano, as well as Brian Blade on drums, is unassailably strong. But listeners could stimulate got lived without the ear-candy sheen provided yesteryear the 34-piece orchestra, arranged primarily yesteryear Alan Broadbent, alongside additional contributions from Jeremy Lubbock as well as Vince Mendoza. (Broadbent as well as Mendoza likewise penned charts for Jane Monheit's In the Sun, released 2 weeks earlier.) Aside from outright banalities similar "America the Beautiful" as well as "It Might Be You" (yes, the Stephen Bishop lite-radio hit), at that topographic point are approximately saving graces, similar Keith Jarrett's "Prism" as well as "No Lonely Nights," Mehldau's "Ron's Place," as well as Haden's 2 originals, "American Dreams" as well as "Nightfall." But Pat Metheny's "Travels" goes soggy without its Midwestern guitar twang, as well as Ornette Coleman's "Bird Food," 1 of entirely iii tracks non to characteristic the orchestra, is hence wildly out of house that its ship upon is somehow diminished -- yet a brilliant pedal-point interlude almost 6 minutes in.
American Dreams is an add-on to Verve Records' collection of ..."with Strings" sessions pioneered yesteryear legedary producer Norman Granz. Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, Harry Carney as well as others gave this genre a shot for Verve. Something almost the grit of the sax audio inward front end of the orchestral string washes that jazz fans appear to either dearest or hate.
The strongest impression several listenings of of American Dreams leaves is: What a keen quartet. "Charlie Haden alongside Michael Brecker" the label proclaims, but it could but equally good tell The New Charlie Haden Quartet. Pianist Brad Mehldau as well as drummer Brian Blade circular out the meat quartet, as well as the unit of measurement achieves a rare bird of cohesion. Maybe it's the bassman, Charlie Haden; a genuinely keen bassist brings everyone upwards a notch or two. He did it on bluesman James Cotton's '96 CD, "Deep inward the Blues"; he does it alongside his ain Quartet West.
Mehldau benefits the most here. His conversations alongside Brecker's sax are intimate as well as precise, his soloing inventive as well as restrained; as well as his "Ron's Place," done alongside but the quartet, is a pensive gem.
Songs yesteryear Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Haden's old running mate Ornette Coleman, an unexpectedly beautiful stimulate got on the unlikely "America the Beautiful," deft string arrangements, a few quartet takes to pause the pacing upwards as well as cash inward one's chips on it interesting
An essential CD for fans of the Verve ..with Strings genre.
Track listing:
All compositions yesteryear Charlie Haden except equally indicated
01 "American Dreams" - 4:52
02 "Travels" (Lyle Mays, Pat Metheny) - 6:46
03 "No Lonely Nights" (Keith Jarrett) - 5:18
04 "It Might Be You" (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Dave Grusin) - 4:55
05 "Prism" (Jarrett) - 5:21
06 "America the Beautiful" (Katharine Lee Bates, Samuel A. Ward) - 5:23
07 "Nightfall" - 5:07
08 "Ron's Place" (Brad Mehldau) - 7:30
09 "Bittersweet" (Don Sebesky) - 6:46
10 "Young as well as Foolish" (Albert Hague, Arnold B. Horwitt) - 5:38
eleven "Bird Food" (Ornette Coleman) - 7:31
12 "Sotto Voce" (Vince Mendoza) - 5:12
thirteen "Love Like Ours" (Bergman, Bergman Grusin) - 4:25
Recorded at Signet Soundelux inward Los Angeles, California on May 14–17, 2002
Personnel:
Charlie Haden — bass
Michael Brecker — tenor saxophone
Brad Mehldau — piano
Brian Blade — drums
Unidentified String Orchestra
Alan Broadbent (tracks 1, 3, 6, 9, & 10), Jeremy Lubbock (tracks 4, vii & 13), Vince Mendoza (tracks 2 & 12) — arranger, conductor.
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