Moshkiae Charlie Haden, Egberto Gismonti and Jan Garbarek Magico 1980

A wonderful album that is more about the touches and feel than anything else. I can not even call this "jazz" as it is an incredible journey into various ideas and themes that appear to have been rehearsed some, so all three could stay together, but thee whole thing is so well done, and Egberto does get to flow quite a bit, probably more than Jan or Charlie.

The combination of these three folks is nice, and really well thought out, if something like that can be said, and when Egberto does some bits of wailing vocals to accompany the piece, it adds a touch to it, that raises this way above what "jazz" is supposed to be, and then it is augmented really well by Jan and Charlie ... a real magic for a combination. Again, as is the case with a lot of Egberto's work, this is more about the music itself, than it is about jazz, and the nicest part of it? There is nothing here that is formulaic or could be defined as the average jazz band, that always has to have a drummer, and ... and ... and the music, quite often is more about each individual soloing than it is about the flight of the music at all.

And this, in my book, was one of the greatest things that the ECM label did for a long time, and it did so by being able to get some folks together that otherwise, you might not imagine or expect. And this album, might just be one of their best ever, and you know that is saying a lot when matched up against some fabulous albums all around by ECM.

"Bailarina" is a treat and it looks like the driving force is Egberto, but it's impossible to say that Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden did not help color the piece so well. The nice thing, towards the end of this piece is Egberto letting Charlie take the lead, and he keeps his touches light on the guitar and allows Charlie to lead, and if anything, this album is about the three making room for each other, and help create one of the prettiest things ever.

"Magico" simply shows how much Jan Garbarek, is capable of getting out of the "jazz" mode that he started out with, which at times, you and I might think was a bit too much, and here, and in this album, he shows his ability to match the music as he has been doing in his previous albums that were close to this one, many that could be considered "experiments" and how does it fit with a jazz player. This is one of the things that rock music has not been able to do, as too much of it is ego-centric and format laden material that lacks the freedom for the players to make it better.

"Silence". Per the previous reviewer, this is a Charlie Haden piece, and I have to admit that I did not have any Charlie Haden albums prior to this one. With a soft piano and a nice lead by Jan Garbarek, I think this piece comes off well, and its softness, is without a doubt one of the special things that makes this album so nice. Charlie stays in the background and eventually does his part with the piano simply adding a few bare notes, and show hos much jazz needs to get off the format, and standard show by musicians. You can solo, as well, but never have to show off ... HERE MOM!!! ... I'm soloing. The feelings being extended are so brilliantly played that you fall into it really nice and easy. I may have to listen to some of the other versions of this on Charlie Haden's albums, but, in many ways, I find that this one is plenty enough for my ears. A classic, if you don't mind my saying so.

"Spor" A guitar led by Egberto Gismonti seems to carry this piece, and augmented by Jan and in the background is Charlie, playing with a soft touch that makes this a very different piece in the album, but no less neat in this album.

"Palhaço" is driven by Jan with Egberto on the piano and (again) Charlie is in the background, giving us a nice and quiet touch that makes this very pretty. The title is a bit strange, considering that it translates to "clown", and the music is anything but that, and it helps us, again, feel the touch that has made this album so spectacular for so long ... rarely have any jazz folks done something so pretty and unusual as this album has show us. It is really nice how the piano compliments the saxophone here, which is not always something that is heard on many jazz works, where the other players are not always adding to the soloing artist a whole lot ... as if it were a sin to interrupt the soloist. You don't have that here, and maybe the one things that makes this album fantastic is the fact that the players are here to make each other better and accentuate the value of the music itself ... it succeeds way more than you or I could ever imagine!

Side Note: A lot of the standard in upright bass, in the jazz circles, is to be up front, and be aggressive, and one of the things that you get here by Charlie Haden, is not aggressiveness, but just a smooth and quiet touch that really carries well ... it is very much "un'jazz" as the pieces are more about the feeling and the mood than they are about the abilities of the player to just plunk notes ... as much as I appreciate many of them, by comparison some are too loud and noisy though still excellent, in a lot of works. But Charlie Haden's touch, here, is simply outstanding, and you don't get that bar-jazz kind of touch. You just get the feel for it all, and in my book that is more important and better for the music itself.

A magnificent album though this is not the kind of thing that some would call "jazz" when they go looking for things to listen to, and this might not be enjoyed by the standard that you see in so many examples in jazz music.

FunkFreak75 If you ever wish to experience musical majesty from two true masters of their craft--and in an album form which never lets one down (though don't be expecting endless noodling, instead be ready for atmospheric paintings that capture the spirit and feel of the Missouri landscapes. Half of the songs are compositions of one of the two performers while the other half are covers of songs by much respected other artists like Jimmy Webb, Ennio and Andrea Morricone, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, and Roy Acuff. The two performers are both iconic, each having earned critical and listener respect and praise from early years and throughout their long and distinguished careers, and I have to say this album may be one of the most satisfying emotional jaunts through nostalgia of the raw beauty of our American landscapes since Ry Kooder's soundtrack to the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas. Do yourself a huge favor: listen to this album. You can YouTube it while you cook or read or work on a puzzle. It's gorgeous music in the way background music can soothe and heal the soul. (It may not, however, be prog. But, here we are!)

Steve Wyzard THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUND...

Whenever anyone brings up the much-discussed subject of the "ECM Sound", the first album I think of is Magico by Egberto Gismonti (guitars/piano), Jan Garbarek (saxophones), and Charlie Haden (bass). This is one of those unlikely "all-star" aggregations ECM Records specialized in during the late 1970s (see also: Abercrombie/Holland/DeJohnette and Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette). Released in 1980 to minor acclaim, this album today is seen as a forerunner to what we now refer to as "World Fusion".

Most listeners bring pre-conceptions to a recording like this, so let's deal with them right away. The lack of a drummer/percussionist does not make this a "quiet album", especially with Garbarek's piercing (no flute) tones sprinkled liberally throughout. A close listen also reveals this is not a "loosely structured jam session" as much thought was obviously given to the arrangements and double-tracking (especially Gismonti's intricate solo above his playing on "Magico"). While a previous familiarity with the performers will best prepare one for this aural soundscape, this album remains very accessible and was my first introduction to the music of both Gismonti and Haden over 25 years ago.

So what can one expect? Gismonti is the dominant voice both figuratively and literally: like on most of his recordings, "Bailarina" includes some brief ad-libbed vocals. There are a multitude of versions of Haden's "Silence" on the market, but this album's is the finest: 16 repeated chords on the piano above solos by Garbarek, Haden, Garbarek (again), and Gismonti. Garbarek's "Spor" features some of Haden's darkest arco playing, and Gismonti's "Palhaco" with its gospel-tinged piano is the peaceful closer with its other-worldly, haunted atmosphere.

The masterful performances throughout this album make Magico a true highlight in the voluminous catalogs of all three players. Never before has ECM's original motto "The Most Beautiful Sound Next To Silence" been more appropriate. Let it also be known that this same trio recorded a follow-up album (Folk Songs) 5 months later that is nowhere near as good as Magico. And just what is that artful cover supposed to signify: is it trees behind powerlines, or painted industrial siding super-imposed over trees?

snobb In September 1987 Charlie Haden recorded an excellent piano trio album with pianist Geri Allen and drummer Paul Motian called "Etudes". Released the following year on the Italian Soul Note label, it opened with Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and continued with mostly originals by the band members, all boppish and swinging.

Three months after the "Etudes" sessions, Haden recorded more material in a Roman studio, but with a very different team this time. Billy Higgins replaces Paul Motian, lyrical Italian pianist Enrico Pieranunzi replaces Geri Allen, and even more, now there is a trumpeter on board, none other than Chet Baker. The end results became the album "Silence".

As one can expect, the music on "Silence" is different from "Etudes". With full respect to Baker's early albums, his participation on jazz albums in the 80s hardly adds a lot of pluses. His name and his voice can still attract nostalgic listeners, but his trumpet playing is hardly competitive compared with the artists he is working with. Even worse, there seems to be a rather pointless and commercial attempt to exploit Baker's past, you can't return the atmosphere back to the cool jazz era in the late 80s, added with Pieranunzi's melancholic mainstream slick piano sounds, its all quite artificial, out of time and place, a not too successful imitation.

This is still a product of classy musicians, so maybe it could attract fans of sentimental Italian jazz from the 70s, which, with varying success tried to combine American jazz traditions with Italian melodic lyricism and sentimentality.

snobb Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett's bassist for decades, and one of the last living "jazz golden age" legends, Charlie Haden passed away two weeks ago. Besides countless collaborative works, he left numerous collections of his own albums. For decades, his projects such as the Liberation Music Orchestra or Quartet West were among the most popular on the international jazz scene.

Besides the aforementioned groups, Haden also released a series of duets, which even if they were not so well-known, often contain a lot of interesting material. Haden's first duet sessions took place in early '76, when four compositions were recorded. The first four songs (duets with Keith Jarrett, Paul Motian, Ornette Coleman and Alice Coltrane) were released that same year as "Closeness" on the tiny Horizon Records And Tapes label. A year later, Horizon released the rest of the material (the choice of compositions for the former release is a bit strange since the outtakes, released later, are quite often stronger than what was released first).

So, the album of four "outtakes", each contains a Haden duet with either Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, Ornette Coleman or pianist Hampton Haves. What a great time it was, when such compositions were counted as "outtakes", for the coming decades, even leading jazz albums will hardly contain such material!

"The Golden Number" opens with Haden's tuneful composition (all but one song on this album are Haden's, the other one - Coleman's) on which Cherry's trumpet flies over Charlie's almost lazy bass. Cherry's trumpet solo is quite lyrical and with no doubt one of his most beautiful ever played (he plays flute on this song as well).

The second and final composition on side A is a duet with tenor Archie Shepp - and it's a bomb. Twelve minutes long, this song is driven by Shepp's soulful and bopish sax from the very first seconds. In the mid-70s Archie Shepp was in transition leaving his early explosive free sax attacks and searching for new ground. Similarly, with his own albums of that period, he plays something between free-bop and balladry, still quite free though. On this duet, Haden is obviously on back-up, supporting Shepp's speech-like sax soloing.

"Turnaround" is originally an Ornette Coleman composition, but here it is played by Haden and pianist Hampton Hawes. Hampton Hawes is a great pianist, but the more traditional of all the collaborators on this album, so the whole thing sounds really nice, but a bit out of place between the others. Haden demonstrates his hard-bop abilities (Hawes is the obvious leader anyway). After "Golden Number", Haden's next release will be a collection of duets with Hampton Hawes, which sounds better all in one place (probably because the music on this next album is more homogeneous, not contrasting as on here).

The closer is the almost thirteen minutes long title composition, the duet with Ornette Coleman. Surprisingly, it's very tuneful and lyrical, even sentimental, not what you usually can expect from Coleman. Having been collaborators for years, Coleman and Haden demonstrate excellent communication and rare emotional relations, making this song an excellent final for this great (if too short) album.

Charlie Haden's fame comes not from his formidable technique, but from his tunes, collaborations, and the variety of collectives he founded and led, from the emotional atmosphere of his music and his naively optimistic political manifests. "The Golden Number" may not be Haden's best record, but it may be the right candidate to listen to now, just for remembering Charlie, because of its intimate atmosphere and bare-naked simplicity, which is so close to greatness.

All eight duets, recorded in 1976, and released originally on two Horizon vinyls, were later re-released on one CD, which is probably the easiest way to listen to this music.