Land Of The Sun

Personnel: Charlie Haden (double bass); Larry Koonse, Lionel Loueke (guitar); Oriente Lopez (flute); Miguel Zenon (alto saxophone); Joe Lovano (tenor saxophone); Michael Rodriguez (trumpet, flugelhorn); Gonzalo Rubalcaba (piano, percussion); Ignacio Berroa (drums, percussion); Juan De La Cruz (bongos).
Producers: Charlie Haden; Gonzalo Rubalcaba; Ruth Cameron.
Recording information: Avatar Studios, New York, New York (12/19/2003 - 12/22/2003).
Those who know bassist Charlie Haden from his avant-garde work with the Liberation Music Orchestra and Ornette Coleman will be in for a shock here. LAND OF THE SUN bears little resemblance to the free, strident music Haden recorded in those groups. With the help of accomplished, intense musicians such as pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and saxophonist Joe Lovano, Haden has made a record of astonishing consonance, serenity, and beauty.
LAND OF THE SUN features music by three significant Mexican composers. Haden's group performs a song each by Agustin Lara ("Solamente Una Vez [You Belong to My Heart]") and Armando Manzanero ("Esta Tarde Vi Llover [Yesterday I Heard the Rain]"), but the remaining eight tracks are by Jose Sabre Marroquin (whose lyrical, delicate music seamlessly blends jazz with his country's folk traditions). Though understated percussion grooves occasionally accent a melody, the tunes, for the most part, are ballads and lullabies. Rubalcaba wrote the arrangements here, which prominently feature his own sensitive piano playing and Oriente Lopez's lilting flute ("Anoranza [Longing]" is a gorgeous example of their interplay). As appropriate to an afternoon siesta on a Mexico City veranda as it is for romantic dancing on a New York rooftop, LAND OF THE SUN is soothing, dream-like, and exquisitely made.