Quartet West: In Angel City - Live

Charlie Haden | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B000008B4R
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,951 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Formative stage in Haden's film noir development, May 31, 2001

By 

Gavin Wilson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quartet West: In Angel City - Live (Audio CD)

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.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Charlie's Best, November 9, 2009

By 

Paul G. McCravy (Columbia, S.C.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Quartet West: In Angel City - Live (Audio CD)

Charlie Haden's "Nocturne" is one of my all time favorite CDs but this effort falls a little short.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Halfway heavenly, July 25, 2009

By 

IRate - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quartet West: In Angel City - Live (Audio CD)

3 1/2

Haden adds just enough personalized touch to transcend the slinky confines so many in his genre fall prey to, providing a moody stimulant that neither overwhelms with complexity nor drowns out in melodramatic tension-less playing.