Search - Charlie Haden, Quartet West :: Best of Quartet West

Just what I wanted to hear

Jordan Smith | Upstate NY | 11/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You know how some albums give you just what you wanted to hear just when you wanted to hear it? I've been a fan of Charlie Haden's work with Ornette Coleman and the Liberation Music Orchestra for years, not to mention his lovely "Steal Away" cd. But I hadn't really checked out his Quartet West, probably because most of the reviews I'd read concentrated on the 40's/50's nostalgia qualities. Well, there certainly is that--and it's a kind of music that's much more to my taste than it used to be--but really this is just a lovely jazz album, with sophisticated and engaging tunes, expressive and inventive solo work,a traditional approach that still acknowledges what jazz has come to sound like. Yes, this is a good cd to have on when you pick up a Raymond Chandler novel and pour a glass of scotch, but just listen to it.... Just what I wanted to hear."