The Art of the Song

1	Dance Episodes (3) from "
2	The Yearling, musical pla
3	Moments Musicaux (6) for
4	In Love in Vain, song (fr
5	Ruth's Waltz
6	Scenes From a Silver Scre
7	I'm Gonna Laugh You Right
8	Young at Heart, film scor
9	Prélude, for piano
10	The Folks Who Live On the
11	Easy On The Heart
12	Theme for Charlie
13	Wayfaring Stranger, relig

Barnes & Noble

For a musician who rose to fame ignoring the conventions of song form while playing in the bands of jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, bassist Charlie Haden obviously adores conventional song form. Haden, working with his Quartet West ensemble, has celebrated great popular standards, classic jazz compositions, and rigorously crafted original tunes in often ingenious settings. As the explicit title of this latest recording states, his passion for songcraft is as fervent as ever. Although Haden surrounds himself with lyrical players who can make their instruments practically sing, including saxophonist Ernie Watts and pianist Alan Broadbent - - not to mention Haden's own penchant for brilliantly constructed improvised melodies - - he ups the ante here by bringing in guest vocalists Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson, two first-class stylists. Horn, the queen of laid-back phrasing, wraps herself around a few gorgeous standards including "In Love in Vain" and "The Folks Who Live on the Hill"; the talented if lesser-known Henderson brings 50s-style charm to "Why Did I Choose You," "You My Love," and others. With a chamber orchestra sweetening the pot, these performances, as well as adaptations of classical pieces by Ravel and Rachmaninov, other venerable standards, and lovely originals by Haden and Broadbent, reverberate with uncommon beauty. We also get to hear Haden, a onetime child country singer, revisit the traditional ballad "Wayfaring Stranger" - - a touching coda to a consistently heartfelt and affecting recording. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

The title of The Art of the Song should signal that the album is not the average effort from Charlie Haden. Instead of the adventurous instrumental post-bop that is his stock-in-trade, The Art of the Song finds him concentrating on songs, going so far to feature Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson on lead vocals on four songs apiece. As it turns out, it's not a great departure -- there's a moody, evocative tone that ties together his later works -- but it is enough to make The Art of the Song a distinctive, engaging work from an utterly original jazz musician. Stephen Thomas Erlewine