The Art Of The Song

by Richard S. Ginell Increasingly mired in nostalgia, Charlie Haden's Quartet West plunges further into the dream world of old movies and postwar domesticity in this downtempo album of ballads, this time with the vocal help of Shirley Horn and Bill Henderson on four numbers apiece. But if you must find a focal point, this album is mainly a showcase for the string chamber orchestra arrangements of Haden's pianist, Alan Broadbent, who has turned in far more imaginative charts for this group than the velvety Muzak heard here. Even classical piano pieces are fair game as Broadbent produces mournful orchestrations of Rachmaninov's Moment Musical Op. 16, No. 3 in B minor and Ravel's Prelude in A minor. In a rare latter-day visit to the recording studio, Henderson is frequently off-key and shaky, though his distinctive blues timbre is intact. But the subtle, conversational Horn is right at home in this late-night lounge idiom, particularly when she revives an obscure Nat King Cole single, Cy Coleman's "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life." Tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts sounds fairly listless and bland in tone most of the time, Larance Marable is limited mostly to brushes, and Haden confines his robust tone mostly to simple basic accompaniment. And if you want real nostalgia, Haden reaches all the way back to his Midwestern childhood by singing the folk song "Wayfaring Stranger" in a lost-sounding, threadbare voice. Frankly, this sounds like the work of a weary musician.