21092015 - Charlie Haden Quartet West "Sophisticated Ladies"

Sometimes all you want is music that you know will soothe your ears, your heart and your brain. Not mindless background noise or mind-numbing elevator music, but proper stuff done by great musicians. When he played the mellow stuff Charlie Haden was happy to be that kind of musician; skilled, but not boasting, content to let the music allow for air. On this album, released in 2010 after a recording hiatus of 11 years, he also invited six wonderful and, well, sophisticated ladies to sing on a standard each, with the remaining half of the tracks left as instrumentals for Haden and his three fellow musicians to play and be playful. And even though the six singers in question are none others than Melody Gardot, Norah Jones, Cassandra Wilson, Ruth Cameron, Renée Fleming and Diana Krall, they never even come close to stealing the spotlight from the band. This is jazz the way you want it to sound late at night in a smoky club, alone in your car driving around the big city streets after midnight or in front of the fire on a cold night with that special someone.