Charlie Haden Not In Our Name CD

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 No Protest
One can only hope that Charlie Haden and Carla Bley will continue to have things to protest about, so we'll have the Liberation Music Orchestra's periodic appearances for some time to come. Since 1968, they've been against war, pollution, discrimination ... there isn't usually a shortage of things to object to. But when Bley brings her crew together, with the assistance of Haden, the results are always exciting and satisfying -- no protest from me! Haden's bass seems as big as the band, at times, but Bley always manages to come up with new and interesting voices, such as the altoist here, Miguel Zenon. When the likes of Zenon, Chris Cheek, Charlie Fowlkes, Joe Daley's tuba and Sharon Freeman's french horn, are brought to bear on quasi-sacred melodies like "America the Beautiful" and "Amazing Grace," the results are marvelous to behold. Who would have thought that a jazz band could make us thrill to Dvorak's "Largo of the New World Symphony," to say nothing of Barber's "Adagio for Strings"? Does music protest? Can it? I wouldn't think so, but if Haden and Bley want it to, more power to them.
Submitted by jonjackson (Missoula, MT, USA) 
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