Liberation Music Orchestra

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Liberation Music Orchestra
Studio album by Charlie Haden
Released	1969
Recorded	1969 April
Genre	Jazz
Length	51:16
Label	Impulse!
Producer(s)	Charlie Haden
Professional reviews
All Music guide link
Charlie Haden chronology
	Liberation Music Orchestra (1969)	Closeness (1976)

Liberation Music Orchestra is a jazz album by Charlie Haden, released in 1969 (see 1969 in music). It was Haden's first album as leader.

The inspiration for the album came when Haden heard songs from the Spanish Civil War. He included four of those songs on the album ("Song of the United Front" by Hans Eisler and Bertolt Brecht, and the trilogy "El Quinto Regimiento", "Los Cuatro Generales", and "Viva la Quince Brigada", which are old Spanish folk songs given new words during the war.

Other tracks on the album include Ornette Coleman's "War Orphans, which Haden had played with Coleman in 1967, three pieces by Carla Bley, who also contributed much of the arranging, two of Haden's own compositions, one dedicated to Che Guevara and one inspired by the 1968 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party:

"After the minority plank on Vietnam was defeated in a vote taken on the convention floor, the California and New York delegations spontaneously began to sing 'We Shall Overcome' [the last track on the album] in protest. Unable to gain control of the floor, the rostrum instructed the convention orchestra to drown out the singing. 'You're a Grand Old Flag' and 'Happy Days Are Here Again' could then be heard trying to stifle 'We Shall Overcome'. To me this told the story, in music, of what was happening in our country politically." (Charlie Haden, original liner notes)

In "Circus '68 '69" the musicians are thus divided into two bands in recreation of the events on the convention floor.

The Liberation Music Orchestra's next album, The Ballad of the Fallen, didn't appear until 1983.

[edit] Track listing

1. "The Introduction" (Bley) –1:15
2. "Song of the United Front" (Brecht–Eisler) –1:52
3. "El Quinto Regimiento" ("The Fifth Regiment") (trad., arr. Bley)
   "Los Cuatro Generales" ("The Four Generals") (trad., arr. Bley)
   "Viva la Quince Brigada" ("Long Live the Fifteenth Brigade") (melody trad., words Bart Van Derschelling) –20:58
4. "The Ending to the First Side" (Bley) –2:07
5. "Song for Ché" (Haden) –9:29
6. "War Orphans" (Coleman) –6:42
7. "The Interlude (Drinking Music)" (Bley) –1:24
8. "Circus '68 '69" (Haden) –6:10
9. "We Shall Overcome" (Horton–Hamilton–Carawan–Seeger) –1:19

(Recorded at Judson Hall, New York City, 27 April–29 April 1969.)

[edit] Personnel

• Gato Barbieri — clarinet, tenor saxophone
• Carla Bley — piano, tambourine
• Sam T. Brown — guitar, thumb piano
• Don Cherry — flute, cornet
• Andrew Cyrille — percussion, drums
• Charlie Haden — bass
• Howard Johnson — tuba
• Michael Mantler — trumpet
• Paul Motian — percussion
• Bob Northern — percussion, French horn
• Dewey Redman — alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
• Perry Robinson — clarinet
• Roswell Rudd — trombone