Charlie Haden Quartet West-Sophisticated Ladies (2010)

Considered one of the most respected bassists and composers in modern jazz, Charlie Haden began to rise to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's quartet. Born in Iowa in 1937, his first forays into music were as a country singer. Around that time, Haden contracted polio, a disease that affected his vocal cords, rendering him completely unable to sing. His passion for music led him to play the double bass, developing an interest in jazz, a style that would define his entire subsequent recording and artistic career. He moved to Los Angeles and joined Ornette Coleman's quartet, a leading exponent of what became known as free jazz, and later, the trio of Keith Jarrett, pianist Hampton Hawes, and saxophonist Art Pepper. Haden also achieved great renown alongside pianists Kenny Barron and Hank Jones. From then on, his collaborations with Paul Motian, Keith Jarrett, Alice Coltrane, Carla Bley, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, John Scofield, Don Cherry, and Pat Metheny were frequent. In 2010, Haden released "Sophisticated Ladies", accompanied by a quartet consisting of Ernie Watts (saxophone), Alan Broadbent (piano), and Rodney Green (drums). This album contains some of the most iconic jazz songs of the past decades, written by legendary composers such as Duke Ellington, Gordon Jenkins, Benny Harris, Johnny Mercer, and Hank Jones, and performed by some of the finest singers of recent years. Exceptional performances in the voices of Norah Jones ("Ill Wind"), Cassandra Wilson ("My Love And I"), Melody Gardot ("If I'm Lucky"), Diana Krall ("Goodbye"), Charlie Haden's own wife, Ruth Cameron ("Let's Call It A Day") or soprano Renée Fleming ("I Love Like This").