Track Listing

1. It's Me, O Lord (Standin' in the Need of Prayer)
2. Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
3. Spiritual
4. Wade in the Water
5. Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
6. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
7. Amour de Moy
8. Danny Boy
9. I've Got a Robe, You Got a Robe (Goin' to Shout All over God's Heav'n)
10. Steal Away
11. We Shall Overcome
12. Go Down Moses
13. My Lord, What a Mornin'
14. Hymn Medley: Abide With Me/Just as I Am Without One Plea/What a Friend

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16170 in Music
• Released on: 1995-04-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Charlie Haden has always had a penchant for roots music, including folk songs from varied traditions in the repertoire of his Liberation Music Orchestra. It's more than affectation; the bassist's musical roots are in Oklahoma, and his career began in early childhood with his family's country-music group. Those sources loom large in this inspired meeting with pianist Hank Jones over a program devoted largely to spirituals, with a few secular folk songs added in. The feelings communicated here arise from no simple reading of traditional material. It's Jones's unmatched harmonic sensitivity that often works the transformation, his close-voiced chords adding new resonance to summon the depths at which this material communicates. Haden, for his part, is as effective a soloist as he is an accompanist, spare and exacting and making full use of his huge, dark sound and powerful lower register. This is music by two masters, immersing themselves in a profound stream of American music. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

Doesn't look like,but a very very great record
At first sight,no,at the first audition,this record may seem to contain some easy-to-listen-to kind of music.But it's a mistake.
This meeting between the old pal of Ornette Coleman,Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell,leader of the rare but exceptionnal "Liberation Music Orchestra",lover of all kinds of folk music,wether it's blues,gospel,south american music or wherever in the world,the great Charlie Haden,and the greatest jazz piano player still alive,child of Fats Waller,Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum (his main influences),member of one of the most revered families of jazz musicians (his brothers are Thad and Elvin Jones),born 1918 and still handsome and active in music,the amazing Hank Jones,this meeting is one of the most important things that happened in the jazz history in the past ten years.
This exceptionnal album was recorded June 29 and 30,1994.The repertoire is mostly made of gospel tunes,except the traditionnal "Danny boy",aka "Londonderry air",and a canadian song from Quebec,written in the 18th century,"L'amour de moy" ("my love").
You've got to deserve this record.It seems so simple to listen to at the first audition;but it will give you its incredible beauties only after two or more playings.Hank Jones' playing seems to be very simple,but his incredible work on harmonies is the mark of the greatest players.Each tune is a jewel.The final track,"hymn medley" is a rare moment of perfection.The first tune of this medley,"abide with me",was written by a certain William H.Monk,and recorded by...Thelonious Monk,with John Coltrane,Coleman Hawkins,Gigi Gryce and Ray Copeland on "Monk's music"(Riverside)."what a friend we have in Jesus" is played in a very nostalgic,even melancholic way by Hank Jones;only a supreme piano player could play that way,so simply,so directly."Amazing grace",a very emotionnal song,close this album magnificently.
If you love piano players who like to use of technical effects (I won't give any name,you have to make your choice,but please note that I DON'T THINK OF ART TATUM,who is ,to me,the greatest piano player of all times),you may have some troubles to discover the amazing treasures of this music.But if you love guys who plays a few notes to say a lot of things (Monk,Duke,Wilson,Basie...),you'll sure consider this session as an essential masterpiece.

Simple and Profound
The cover of this cd is graced with a photograph from the great American photographer Walker Evans. Nothing could be more fitting. Evans' shots capture the bare bones of the South,all veneer stripped away. The simple becomes achingly beautiful. The commonplace becomes universal.
Such is the case with this cd. The remarkably versatile and eclectic Charlie Haden teams up with of those famous Jones brothers, Hank, for a bass-piano performance that defines simplicity, soulfulness,and spirituality.
From "Go Down, Moses" to "We Shall Overcome" to the (surprisingly included) "Danny Boy", these songs speak of the soul and to the soul. Haden and Jones clearly have great respect for each other and for this music. Both voyage away from and back to the melody lines, but the familiarity and simplicity of the arrangements soothes and comforts both mind and spirit.
I'm always surprised when a cd such as this gets made. Haden must have some juice with those music moguls because this is as non-commercial as music gets.
Think of this as a companion piece to Cyrus Chestnut's Blessed Quietness or even Springsteen's Nebraska. When all the tricks and glitter get stripped away, usually one finds the truth.

Something to Share With Your Real Friends
I have been a long time fan of Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, each of whom I encountered in a rather different context. That seems fitting. These artists are musicians, not stylists. They react to and play the music on its own terms. I have given about six copies of this recording to close friends and every one has come to me with praise for the set. One friend played the disc at a school assembly and had a half dozen people come up to him and ask for the name of the recording.

Make no mistake; this is not dance music. This is poetry, the thoughtful kind.