Ornette Coleman (alto sax), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet), Charlie Haden (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). From the album Change of the Century (1960).
During the 1960s, Haden also played with Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp and John Handy, among others, and founded his own big band, the Liberation Music Orchestra. From 1967 to 1976 worked with Keith Jarrett’s trio, quartet and quintet and later organized the Old and New Dreams collective. During the 1980s and 1990s he toured extensively with his Liberation Music Orchestra. In 1982 he created the jazz studies program at the California Institute of the Arts. In 1986 formed the bebop group Quartet West. Haden liked to play in duet, so in 1995 he recorded with Hank Jones and in 1996 with Pat Metheny.
In 1997, classical composer Gavin Bryars wrote By the Vaar, an extended adagio for him. In 2005, Haden rejoined his Liberation Orchestra to record the album Not In Our Name, a protest against the United States invasion of Iraq. In 2009 he recorded again in duet, this time with Kenny Barron. In 2010 he released the album Jasmine also in duet with Keith Jarrett as the soundtrack for the film about his life Rambling Boy by Reto Caduff. His last albums were Sophisticated Ladyes with his group Quartet West and a string ensemble arranged by Alan Broadbent, and Live at Birtland with Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau and Paul Motian. He died in Los Angeles in 2014 at 76 years of age.
The theme is lively at medium-fast tempo, longer than the others and has a certain bebop feel to it. The main melody is played by Coleman and Cherry in unison, but the bridge is delivered by Coleman alone in AABA structure. Right away Cherry enters in a frantic and explosive way, but soon he rightens his speech, which is now entertaining and serene. Afterwards, Coleman makes a quite quick solo using all his melodic resources and mastering the instrument, and at the end introduces more energic and intrepid phrases. At last, the group reexposes the theme.
© Atlantic Records
