CHARLIE HADEN

I say I'm done making RIP blog posts, and then in one day, Charlie Haden, Tommy Ramone, and Chris Grier all pass away. Maybe I should start a blog or a magazine called Passages and just write about great and important musicians when they leave us. Regardless, each one of these three deserves pages and pages of tribute, and you can type any of their names in twitter and see why. For example, this is a great tweet about Tommy Ramone (as an experienced engineer and producer, he was the mostly unheralded sonic conceptualist for the Ramones), and I'll link to my own tweet about Chris Grier (seriously, NOISE AGAINST FASCISM FOREVER).

But Charlie Haden is simply one of my favorite musicians who has ever played a note. I honestly don't think he ever wasted a note. He played the bass, but more accurately he played MUSIC. As it says on his wikipedia page, "He believed that all music originates from the same place, and because of this, he resisted the tendency to divide music into categories." 

He also had this stunning insight about improvisation in a 2008 NPR interview:  "I learned at a very young age that music teaches you about life. When you're in the midst of improvisation, there is no yesterday and no tomorrow — there is just the moment that you are in. In that beautiful moment, you experience your true insignificance to the rest of the universe. It is then, and only then, that you can experience your true significance."

He also always looked cool as hell, especially on the This Is Our Music cover photo. Personally, I've always felt a special connection to him because he grew up in a small Iowa town 20 miles from the small Iowa town I grew up in . . . in fact, his town was a little bigger than mine and it's where I bought my first records, which were actually not The Shape Of Jazz To Come but Kiss Rock and Roll Over and Queen News of the World . . . but enough about me. Here's some tweets about Charlie:

Charlie Haden might be the deepest bass player who ever lived. RIP.
— Bethlehem Shoals (@freedarko) July 11, 2014

The world could always use more Charlie Haden. Just uploaded this beautiful solo of Ornette's "Lonely Woman" live... http://t.co/fDAVSyuD7d
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) July 10, 2014

RIP CHARLIE HADEN: COMPLETE GENIUS: NUFF RESPECT FULL STYLE http://t.co/FsEobwbjgJ pic.twitter.com/ipCVwyUCdf
— John Olson (@olsonpower) July 11, 2014

Old & New Dreams - w/ Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden http://t.co/YapxPK9Hnv
— Tyler Wilcox (@tywilc) July 11, 2014

At 4.30 Charlie Haden's bass solo: folk song transmitted through improvisation & on to Ian Dury... https://t.co/gbupHxHijC thanks CH.
— Fife Psychogeography (@Fifepsy) July 12, 2014

I love charlie haden, biggest lover ever http://t.co/O1m6EY3O7C
— mike watt (@wattfrompedro) July 12, 2014

"Charlie Haden jams w/Minutemen..." pic.twitter.com/h17AzKWdjl" @AndOtherness the man w/us m-men wailing on "little man w/a gun in his hand"
— mike watt (@wattfrompedro) July 12, 2014

Goodbye and thank you, Charlie Haden. Remembering the man at his toughest: https://t.co/Zfxlkj6D2K
— Hank Shteamer (@DarkForcesSwing) July 11, 2014

RTing this Charlie Haden intvw w Amy Goodman/@democracynow because it's everything: http://t.co/WQfY77Otw5 [via @cordeliers]
— Destination: OUT (@destinationOUT) July 12, 2014