CHARLIE HADEN Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Old & New Dreams was a jazz group active from 1976 to 1987 - a four-piece bound together by their shared history as sidemen for free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman. The line-up was Don Cherry on trumpet, Dewey Redman on tenor sax, Charlie Haden on bass and Ed Blackwell on drums, and between them they played renditions of Coleman's compositions as well as writing their own material. Having previously limited the restraints other musicians placed on them in past work, the assembled members of Old & New Dreams celebrated coming together and being able to push themselves further out, and the results on this seminal album speak for themselves. Remastered and reissued with the ever-present attention to detail of an ECM pressing, this is essential listening for anyone serious about jazz of all stripes, free or otherwise.