Charlie Haden Quartet West - In Angel City

Formative stage in Haden's film noir development

Recorded mid-1988, this is the second Quartet West album. The late Billy Higgins had departed, to be replaced by Larance Marable on every track bar one. Unlike its successors, 'Haunted Heart' and 'Always Say Goodbye', there is no splicing here with vintage recordings of classic artists such as Jo Stafford or Coleman Hawkins. No introductory fanfares either. But Haden's fixation with the LA of the past is clear. There's a lengthy Ray Chandler passage on the sleevenotes. The album cover features a photo of Haden back in the late 1950s, when the Ornette Coleman Quartet were appearing at the Club Hillcrest.

On the debut album, the band opened with a Metheny standard, 'Hermitage'. For this album, Metheny specially writes a piece entitled 'The Red Wind'. It is by far the most joyful track on the album -- Alan Broadbent seems almost surprised at having to play upbeat piano licks that Metheny would normally expect Lyle Mays to perform. (Actually it features some of the cheesiest piano riffs I've ever heard Pat compose.) The track seems out of place. One cannot help feeling that it would be better performed on a guitar rather than a saxophone, and yet Pat has never recorded the piece himself.

The LP closes with an uncharacteristic piece, 'Fortune's Fame', which is more Rippingtons than Quartet West, and yet it's very pretty. I was genuinely shocked the first time I heard Ernie Watts switch mid-track to the Yamaha WX7 wind synthesiser. (I had taken it for granted that Quartet West was an all-acoustic band.)

The CD includes an extra couple of reasonable tracks not on the LP. If you had bought the LP, you wouldn't have got any Alan Broadbent compositions at all. Broadbent has really flourished as both composer and arranger on subsequent albums; here you only get an inkling of his potential.

This is a good album, but not an outstanding one. With this, Haden put all the group elements in place. One extra magical element was required for the group's masterpieces, which are the next two albums. And that element is the splicing. June 1, 2001

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