{"id":1228,"date":"2010-06-25T20:49:52","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T20:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=1228"},"modified":"2010-06-27T05:15:40","modified_gmt":"2010-06-27T05:15:40","slug":"first-song-charlie-haden-and-quartet-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2010-06\/first-song-charlie-haden-and-quartet-west\/","title":{"rendered":"First Song–Charlie Haden and Quartet West"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As mentioned before, we love the jazz music.\u00a0 And as you can hopefully also tell, we love songs.\u00a0 Especially worthy “first songs.”<\/p>\n

There are a few musical moments in one’s life that can stick with you forever and cling to your soul.<\/p>\n

For us, we will confess that those moments are far fewer in strictly instrumental music.\u00a0 Faure’s sweet\u00a0 Pavane<\/em>, Claudio Arrau’s heart-rending recording of Brahm’s posthumous Sonata in B-Flat Major<\/em>, and portions of Keith Jarret’s “Koln Concert” come to mind (though there are others, our mind’s a bit foggy during the World Cup proceedings).<\/p>\n

But the jazz song that is embedded forever in our list of favorite songs, and that has stuck with us since we first heard it twenty-some years ago, is Charlie Haden’s beautiful First Song (for Ruth) <\/em>as recorded with Quartet West and featuring the soulful saxophone genius of Ernie Watts.<\/p>\n

Charlie Haden wrote an enduring beauty which has been covered by Stan Getz, Abbey Lincoln and others since it first appeared on Quartet West\u2019s 1988 “In Angel City.” It was the first song Charlie wrote for his\u00a0 wife, Ruth Cameron, whom he married in 1989 and has acknowledged “saved my life” (from heroin addiction amongst other afflictions). \u00a0 And so it sounds in First Song<\/em>.\u00a0 One hears a relatively simple, but haunting melody, that moves through many moods:\u00a0 from heavyhearted torment, to anger, to soulful wonderment, perhaps, of a saving second chance.<\/p>\n

And in the Quartet West recording heard below, Ernie Watts sees this song in all its beauty and raises it one (perhaps two).<\/p>\n

Charlie Haden and Quartet West–First Song (for Ruth)<\/em><\/p>\n[audio:https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/02-First-Song-For-Ruth.mp3|titles=02 First Song (For Ruth)]\n

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As mentioned before, we love the jazz music.\u00a0 And as you can hopefully also tell, we love songs.\u00a0 Especially worthy “first songs.” There are a few musical moments in one’s life that can stick with you forever and cling to your soul. For us, we will confess that those moments are far fewer in strictly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t