Eritrea lies along the Red Sea. It has an archipelago. It’s half-circled by Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

The area has been home to humans for a million years. There are records of trade with ancient Egypt. Aksum, a kingdom which existed for almost a millennium until 940 A.D., erected the largest obelisk in the world. It still stands.

What is known as modern Eritrea passed through different hands, including a Christian dynasty and the Ethiopian and Ottoman Empires.

Italy established a colony in the late 1800s. They built factories and laid train tracks. Mussolini declared Eritrea part of the Roman Empire’s rebirth.

After WWII the Allies couldn’t decide what to do with Eritrea. At the urging of the United States, it was federated with its neighbor, Ethiopia.

The Eritrean Liberation Movement was formed in 1958 to promote independence from foreign rule. In 1961 the Eritrean Liberation Front began an armed struggle for freedom. In response, Ethiopean ruler Haile Selassie dissolved the Etririean assembly and annexed the entire country. What came to be called the Eritrean War of Independence lasted 30 years.

The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, the music of which we hear from this circa 1980 cassette, defeated the Ethiopean army in 1991. Eritrea is now ruled by the EPLF. Since 1993, they have had one president, and they have never held elections.

Side one of this cassette, along with more information, can be heard here.

This cassette was found in a box, along with live bootlegs and commerical releases, belonging to the collection of my father, jazz bassist Charlie Haden.

Victory to the masses!

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My father collected protest music from all over the world.

There are LPs from the Spanish Civil War. Songs of resistance from Chile, El Salvador, Peru, Uruguay, Honduras, Nicaragua, Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, and Cuba. Brazil. Puerto Rico. Haiti. South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique. Vietnam, Communist China. Lebanon and Palestine. Portugal. Poland. Songs of the Black Panthers and of anti-Vietnam protests in the USA.

Charlie let the material inform his own projects, especially his Liberation Music Orchestra. Pieces from the Spanish Civil War showed up on the first LMO album, from 1970, one of the first examples of sampling that I can think of. Subsequent releases saw the orchestra record the anthem of the African National Congress and Quilapayún’s classic of Chilean resistance, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”. They recorded “We Shall Overcome” and a purposely off-key version of “America The Beautiful”.

As I move through this box I’m finding examples on cassettes.

Eritrean Revolutionary Songs N. 5 has jacket notes written in English, Tigrinya, and Arabic, but mostly Tigrinya. There’s no track listing. It’s a compilation of different artists performing songs of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front. I’m guessing, from other tapes, it dates from circa 1980.

I’ll post side two next week.

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On the evening of 29 March 1984, Mark Crawford, the host of Reno, Nevada public radio station KUNR’s Just Jazz, aired a special program honoring Reno bassist Jim Haden, who had died of a heart attack four days earlier. For almost 90 minutes, Mark, along with guest John Peirce, a legendary Reno-area saxophonist, recalled memories, stories, and music of Jim.

Jim was the big brother of my father, jazz bassist Charlie Haden. As I wrote in part one, Jim was the major influence on my father’s life. Jim introduced Charlie to big band and be-bop at a very early age. Charlie looked up to Jim, so much so he even adopted his instrument.

I found this interview on a cassette among many live bootlegs and studio mixes in my father’s effects.

John Peirce opens part two talking about how he reacted when first hearing Ornette Coleman in 1957.

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On the evening of 29 March 1984, Mark Crawford, the host of Reno, Nevada public radio station KUNR’s Just Jazz, had an announcement to make. That night’s episode would be a memorial tribute to legendary local jazz bassist Jim Haden, who suffered a heart attack four days previously, on stage, clutching his bass. He died in the hospital hours later.

Over the next ninety minutes, Crawford, along with longtime Reno-area saxophonist and close friend of Jim’s, John Peirce, shared memories and played rehearsal tapes of Jim, who had performed extensively in and around Reno clubs and casinos for over ten years, but rarely set foot in recording studios. John describes Jim as “one of the best bass players who ever lived.”

John says that Jim recorded with blues singer Jimmy Witherspoon and gigged with jazz pianist Errol Garner. Jim played and maintained correspondence with free jazz saxophonist Rashaan Roland Kirk. He was also a talented painter.

Jim was, of course, older brother to my father, Charlie Haden.

Bassist Buell Neidlinger was born on March 2, 1936, in New York City. At the age of nineteen he joined Cecil Taylor’s group. In 1959, he played with Jimmy Giuffre, opening for Ornette Coleman at the Five Spot. He sat in with Ornette sometimes when my father couldn’t make the gig. Buell soon grew tired of the financial see-saw of a jazz musician’s life. He joined the world of classical music. He went on the road with the Boston Pops, and became bass chair in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, Neidlinger moved to Los Angeles, where he joined the Warner Bros. studio orchestra. He was principal bassist there for 30 years.

Buell continued playing jazz in a variety of settings. Krystal Klear and The Buells had a big presence in the early 1980s L.A. jazz scene. The group consisted of Marty Krystall on tenor sax, Buell Neidlinger on bass, Warren Gale, trumpet, and my father’s old friend Billy Higgins on drums. Their debut album, Ready For The 90s, was released in 1980. Cecil Taylor performed on one track. Buell Neidlinger continued putting out amazing jazz records for decades. He died in 2018.

The tracks on side one are entitled, I Gor’s BLUEs and Like, Latin/Synapse. Side two starts with Modern Gizz, into P.O., and ends with Cecil.

Read my post, “Interviews From A Box, Pt. 1: Charlie Haden vs Buell Neidlinger” for more about Neidlinger’s life and his relationship to my father. You can find it at joshhaden.substack.com.

In this Substack podcast I listen to albums from the record collection of my father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. If you like what you hear, please consider subscribing. I’m writing a book of Memoires about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. The address is joshhaden.substack.com.

Also, consider visiting the website of my band, Spain. We’re in the midst of recording a new studio album. Subscribers can listen to rough mixes of brand new songs as we record them, and other exclusive tracks. The address is spaintheband.com.

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The Summer 1995 Charlie Haden Quartet West appearance at Israel Festival in Jerusalem was an important stop on their world tour in support of Always Say Goodbye, released by Verve in March 1994.

The first set included songs from their debut 1987 album, 1988’s In Angel City, and 1992’s Haunted Heart.

The second set, presented here, features tunes from Always Say Goodbye and Haunted Heart. The encore’s a beautiful version of “Body And Soul”, much different than the take from their 1987 self-titled release.

Charlie formed Quartet West after permanently moving to the West Coast. Saxophonist Ernie Watts, a longtime member of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show band, and pianist Alan Broadbent, an in-demand arranger, joined at the group’s beginning in 1986. Former Ornette Coleman bandmate, drummer Billy Higgins, played on the first album. He was replaced by Larance Marable, another fellow Los Angelean who had performed with Charlie’s 1950s-era heroes, Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes, Chet Baker.

Partial transcript of Charlie Haden’s end-of-2nd-set speech to audience:

“It’s really a great feeling for me and I know for everybody in the band to come to Israel. I’ve never been here before. I don’t think Alan and Ernie and Larance have been here before. For my wife Ruth and I, it’s been an unbelievable experience. Almost too difficult to put into words. It’s really a feeling of sacredness. Of being together, and a very deep feeling of creativity, that I feel here, that’s something else, man.”

Charlie Haden Quartet West

Israel Festival

Jerusalem, Israel

May or June 1995

Second Set

1. Relaxin’ At Camarillo (Charlie Parker)

2. Always Say Goodbye (Charlie Haden)

3. The Long Goodbye (Alan Broadbent)

4. Segment (Charlie Parker)

[Encore]

5. Body And Soul (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton)

Charlie Haden - bass

Alan Broadbent - piano

Ernie Watts - saxophone

Larance Marable - drums

Recorded by the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Additional editing by Josh Haden 2023.

In this substack podcast I listen to albums from the record collection of my father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. I’m writing a book of Memoires about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. That address is joshhaden.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshhaden.substack.com/subscribe

I opened the top drawer of the oak dresser on my immediate left. It was filled with cassette tapes. Laying on top was one titled “Charlie Haden Quartet West / Jerusalem 1995”. I put it in the canvas bag.

Ruth died on 11 September 2021. Probate took over a year to complete. The dusty garage was filled, floor to rafters, with my father’s effects. There was only a narrow path left for walking.

The shelves were stuffed with tapes and CDs. Live recordings, rough studio mixes, finished pre-release album versions. I took the Jerusalem cassette home. Put it in my cassette deck. Plugged my cassette deck into my computer.

The notes state it’s a recording from the I.B.A. - Israel Broadcasting Authority, the official public broadcaster until they were replaced by the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) in 2017. I’m guessing the performance was taped off air and mailed to my father shortly after.

Charlie was fifty-eight when this concert occurred. It was his first visit to Israel. I present set one here. I’ll post the second set next week.

Charlie Haden Quartet West

Israel Festival

Jerusalem, Israel

May or June 1995

First Set

1. Passport (Charlie Parker)

2. Hello My Lovely (Charlie Haden

3. Child’s Play (Charlie Haden)

4. First Song (Charlie Haden)

Charlie Haden - bass

Alan Broadbent - piano

Ernie Watts - sax

Larance Marable - drums

Recorded by the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Additional editing by Josh Haden 2023.

In this substack podcast I listen to albums from the record collection of my father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. I’m writing a book of Memoires about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. That address is joshhaden.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshhaden.substack.com/subscribe

Treacherous Jaywalkers was a band I formed with high school classmates Quinn Haber and James Fenton in 1984. Our first demo was recorded with producer/classmate Steve Tounsand on July 31st, 1985 in Steve’s parents’ living room. Shortly afterwards, I gave a copy to Mike Watt of the Minutemen, which eventually led to Watt asking us to sign to New Alliance Records, the label he had formed with Minutemen guitarist D. Boon.

I recently published a Substack essay regarding the night Charlie Haden played on stage with the Minutemen at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in September 1984. The songs you hear in this podcast are extracted from the first Treacherous Jaywalkers demo, the same tape I gave to Mike Watt less than a year later. For more history about the Minutemen, read Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life, or watch the 2005 documentary We Jam Econo: The Story Of the Minutemen. For more info on the Treacherous Jaywalkers, visit here.

In this substack podcast I listen to albums from the record collection of my father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. I’m writing a book of Memoires about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. That address is joshhaden.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshhaden.substack.com/subscribe

Solid, Jackson. My father arrived in Los Angeles in 1956. One night he was at Tiny Naylor’s on Hollywood and La Brea and introduced himself to bassist Red Mitchell. Red and Charlie became friends. Red introduced Charlie to saxophonist Art Pepper, then recommended Charlie to Art when Red couldn’t make a gig. Art subsequently hired Charlie for his quartet.

Art Pepper began his career in the early 1940s with Benny Carter and Stan Kenton. He soon became, along with Charlie Parker, one of the most sought-after saxophonists in jazz. His career was sidelined by prison stints for drug offences, and by extended stays in rehabs. Charlie was one of the first people to work with Art after he returned to the studio in 1975.

Pepper Jam +1 was released in 2009 on the Interplay label from Japan. According to the liner notes, the track you’re about to hear was recorded live in concert in Pasadena, California, March 29, 1975. Art and Charlie are joined by Anthony Ortega, alto sax, Zoot Sims and Harold Land, tenor sax, Bobby Hutcherson, vibes, Barney Kessel, guitar, Victor Feldman, piano, and Billy Higgins, drums.

Read Art Pepper’s autobiography, Straight Life, published in 1979.

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Pianist John Lewis was born in La Grange, Illinois in 1920 and died in 2001. He recorded and performed with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, and Miles Davis before founding the Modern Jazz Quartet with Milt Jackson, Percy Heath, and Kenny Clarke in 1952. 1990’s Private Concert was a late period release on the EmArcy label. This solo piano album was produced by Jean-Philippe Allard, who also produced my father’s Quartet West albums. John Lewis and The Modern Jazz Quartet were a big influence on Charlie.

In this substack podcast I listen to albums from the record collection of my father, the late jazz bassist Charlie Haden. I’m writing a book of Memoires about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. The address is joshhaden.substack.com.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit joshhaden.substack.com/subscribe