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<div class="track"><img alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/1381?ns=guardian&pageName=Charlie+Haden+Quartet+West%3A+Sophisticated+Ladies+*+review%3AArticle%3A1553140&ch=Music&c3=Guardian&c4=Jazz+%28Music+genre%29%2CNorah+Jones%2CMusic%2CCulture&c5=Jazz%2CPop+Music%2CNot+commercially+useful&c6=John+Fordham&c7-May-05&c853140&c9=Article&c10=Album+review%2CReview&c11=Music&c13=&c25=&c30=content&h2=GU%2FMusic%2FJazz" width="1" height="1" /></div><p class="standfirst">(Emarcy)</p><p>Those familiar with American bassist Charlie Haden (who plays the Barbican on 21-22 May) and his landmark recordings with Ornette Coleman in the 1950s or with Keith Jarrett in the 70s might find his now 25-year-old Quartet West overly graceful by comparison – even more so now that it has been augmented with six low-lights singers and a swoony strings ensemble. But Haden's patient lyricism and devotion to classic song melody always exhibit a disguised intensity and a flawless touch. Cassandra Wilson, Diana Krall, Melody Gardot, Norah Jones, Renée Fleming and the bassist's vocalist wife, Ruth Cameron, join the band for this seductively intimate sway through a repertoire of famous and lesser-known standard songs, but the coolly grooving instrumental quartet also has half the running time to itself, for a typically surefooted series of improvisations featuring saxophonist Ernie Watts and pianist Alan Broadbent. Wilson's lustrous low sound on My Love and I, with Watts's sax and Haden's bass enveloping it, is a major highlight, as is opera singer Fleming's subtly underplayed slow burn on A Love Like This. But all the performances are touched by Haden's instinct for doing the right thing quietly. It hasn't been out front for weeks in the French jazz album charts for nothing.</p><p class="rating">Rating: 4/5</p><div class="related" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><ul><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/jazz">Jazz</a></li><li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/norah-jones">Norah Jones</a></li></ul></div><div class="author"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/johnfordham">John Fordham</a></div><br/><div class="terms"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk">guardian.co.uk</a> © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our <a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html">Terms & Conditions</a> | <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds">More Feeds</a></div><p style="clear:both" />
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<p><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/may/05/charlie-haden-quartet-west-sophisticated-ladies">Link</a>