Charlie Haden - The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint and Soul Note (5 CD, 2010/FLAC)

 

THE COMPLETE REMASTERED RECORDINGS ON BLACK SAINT & SOUL NOTE is a monographic box-set collection aimed at recounting the most beautiful chapters that revolutionised the history of jazz.

This new series was launched in March 2010 with the simultaneous release of four box-sets, including albums by some of the artists who participated in the success of the outstanding labels. A philological work, beginning with the original recordings on multi-track master tapes, patiently integrally remastered paying strict attention to the sound quality.

The two albums by the ex-Ornette Coleman alumni-group Old and New Dreams are justly celebrated, but they're entirely outshone in this superb five-disc box-set by three relative obscurities: Silence, a fabulous 1989 quartet with Chet Baker (one of his many last recordings); First Song, a trio of the following year with Billy Higgins and Enrico Pieranunzi; and another trio, Etudes, with Geri Allen and Paul Motian, from 1988. Baker's playing on Haden's famous tune "Silence" represents total jazz heaven.

During the 1970s, left-field American jazz recording was at an ebb, and European companies like ECM and these two Italian labels stepped into the breach. This remastered 5-CD set, which flags up an extensive re-issue programme, captures the sonorous bassist in his full-bodied prime. Two albums present him with the sympathetic ex-Ornette Coleman sidemen of the New and Old Dreams Quintet spiky trumpeter Don Cherry a puckish lead and three are impressionist piano trios with Chet Baker adding wistful trumpet on one, Silences.

CD1:

1. Handwoven 6:57
2. Dewey's Tune 5:57
3. Chairman Mao 7:39
4. Next To The Quiet Stream 6:48
5. Augmented 10:12
6. Old And New Dreams 6:24

CD2:

1. Happy House 9:19
2. Law Years 9:02
3. Togo 8:15
4. Dewey's Tune 11:30
5. Street Woman 9:34

CD3:

1. Lonely Woman 9:57
2. Dolphy's Dance 4:06
3. Sandino 4:46
4. Fiasco 5:42
5. Etude 2:12
6. Blues In Motion 7:00
7. Silence 6:39
8. Shuffle Montgomery 6:29
9. Etude 2:10

CD4:

1. Visa 5:46
2. Silence 8:44
3. Echi 6:08
4. My Funny Valentine 5:38
5. 'Round Midnight 11:34
6. Conception 5:56

CD5:

1. First Song 10:07
2. Je Ne Sais Quoi 5:43
3. Polka Dots And Moonbeams 6:46
4. Lennie's Pennies 7:02
5. News Break 5:07
6. All THe Way 6:30
7. Si Si 10:33
8. For Turiya 3:30
9. In The Moment 4:52