“Cinema Paradiso” - Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny

It seems like we are losing jazz legends at a faster rate nowadays.  In honor of Charlie Haden I’m posting this video of him with Pat Metheny playing one of my all-time favorite themes, “Cinema Paradiso.”

Haden first got his notoriety playing with Ornette Coleman when Coleman broke ground with his concept of free jazz in the late 1950s.  The group was not well-received at first but it became a movement and John Coltrane joined the movement not too long afterwards.

The albums The Shape of Jazz to Come and Free Jazz brought the music to the public and Haden was a part of both records.  He would continue to play with Coleman off and on for years after.

There is an interesting documentary on the year 1959 and how it changed jazz history.  It talks about how the albums Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Take Five by Dave Brubeck, Mingus A hum by Charlie Mingus and The Shape of Jazz to Come by Ornette Coleman set the trajectory for the music that came after it.  Haden is interviewed in the video as well.  You can check it out here.