Charlie Haden on his first time playing at the Five Spot
NOW, A JAZZ MOMENT…
MUSIC: Eventually (Ornette Coleman)
CD: The Shape of Jazz To Come
Atlantic Recording Corp. 2005/1959
Charlie Haden: We weren’t thinking about oh we’re playing new music. We just wanted to play you know? Cause we couldn’t find anybody to play with! Not like this. You know, this was somethin’ else.
NEA JAZZ MASTER CHARLIE HADEN BECAME A MEMBER OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ORNETTE COLEMAN QUARTET IN THE LATE 1950S. HE RECALLS THE QUARTET’S HISTORIC FIRST APPEARANCE AT NEW YORK CITY’S FIVE SPOT.
Charlie Haden: I was getting my bass ready onstage and I looked up and standing along the bar was Charlie Mingus, Ray Brown, Percy Heath, Paul Chambers… every great bass player in NY were there. And when I looked up and saw those guys, man, I closed my eyes from then on! It was something because I guess people in New York had heard that we were comin to town and you could hardly get into the place! And the funny thing was it was like that every night. Too many people, you couldn’t get in.
MUSIC: punctuation
THIS JAZZ MOMENT WITH BASSIST CHARLIE HADEN WAS CREATED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.