This overly long quartet-plus-strings session is
Charlie Haden's paean to an ideal America, made during a time that was ripe for such reflections. The band, with
Haden on bass,
Michael Brecker on tenor,
Brad Mehldau on piano, and
Brian Blade on drums, is unassailably strong. But listeners could have lived without the ear-candy sheen provided by the 34-piece orchestra, arranged primarily by
Alan Broadbent, with additional contributions from
Jeremy Lubbock and
Vince Mendoza. (
Broadbent and
Mendoza also penned charts for
Jane Monheit's In the Sun, released two weeks earlier.) Aside from outright banalities like "America the Beautiful" and "It Might Be You" (yes, the
Stephen Bishop lite-radio hit), there are some saving graces, like
Keith Jarrett's "Prism" and "No Lonely Nights,"
Mehldau's "Ron's Place," and
Haden's two originals, "American Dreams" and "Nightfall." But
Pat Metheny's "Travels" goes soggy without its Midwestern guitar twang, and
Ornette Coleman's "Bird Food," one of only three tracks not to feature the orchestra, is so wildly out of place that its impact is somehow diminished -- notwithstanding a vivid pedal-point interlude about six minutes in. ~ David R. Adler