The great jazz bassist Charlie Haden has passed away at the age of 76 after a prolonged illness. Haden had a long and influential career, including being a part of the Ornette Coleman Quartet starting in the late 1950s and a part of the Liberation Music Orchestra starting in the late 1960s. Haden made the world a better place in other ways too, as a teacher and as an advocate for social justice.
As a teenager, Haden lost his singing voice from bulbar polio while he was playing in a family country band, so he turned his focus to playing bass. The country influence stayed with the Iowa-born Haden on much of his music, including 2008’s Rambling Boy album, even as he became a groundbreaker in a number of genres.
One of my favorite albums is the Grammy-winning Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories) (1996), where Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny created some of the most haunting and beautiful country-infused jazz music ever recorded. “Spiritual,” one of the tracks on the album was written by Haden’s son Josh Haden. Although I also would later fall in love with the Johny Cash version that included the lyrics, this instrumental version still breaks my heart every time I hear it.
The same disease that took away Haden’s voice and forced him to turn to the bass eventually affected his playing. In 2010, due to post-polio syndrome, Haden stopped performing in public even though he continued to play at home and with friends. The disease, however, could never take away the beautiful recordings that Haden made during his lifetime. For more on Haden’s life, check out these articles from Variety and the New York Times. RIP.
Photo via Geert Vandepoele (Creative Commons).What is your favorite Charlie Haden track? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Poet and author Maya Angelou has passed away at the age of 86. In this video, the poet who has dispensed wisdom in numerous ways, discusses the best advice she has ever given and the best advice she has ever received. Check it out.
When she speaks of forgiveness, she speaks from experience, having experienced horrible trauma as a child. Through her struggles, she helped make us better. Rest in peace.
The arrest and conviction of former boxer Ruben “Hurricane” Carter inspired one of Bob Dylan’s great protest songs and an award-winning performance by Denzel Washington.
Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who had been suffering from prostate cancer, passed away on April 20, 2014 at the age of 76. Carter, who was born on May 6, 1937 in New Jersey, was a former boxer who was accused of murder in 1966.
Carter spent 19 years in prison in New Jersey before a court reversed his conviction in 1985 and set him free. His story inspired a great Bob Dylan song and a movie starring Denzel Washington. While both the song and the movie took some liberties with Carter’s story, they both captured truths about the criminal justice system.
Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”
Carter’s case became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy wrote a song about the wrongful conviction. And then Dylan released “Hurricane” as a single in November 1975.
Dylan played what many fans consider his last great protest song during almost every performance of the 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. “Hurricane” went on to become a top 40 hit, despite its length and level of detail in telling a story.
Denzel Washington’s Hurricane
Ruben Carter’s life appeared in a major film too. In 1999, Denzel Washington portrayed Carter in the movie Hurricane, which was directed by Norman Jewison.
Washington gave a wonderful performance as Carter, winning a Golden Globe and earning a nomination for the Best Actor Academy Award. In this scene near the end of the film, Denzel Washington as Carter makes a final plea to the court.
The Real Story
The movie and the song took some dramatic license with the facts of Carter’s life. For example, many noted that Dylan’s song overstated Carter’s ranking in the boxing world (“He could-a been/ The champion of the world”).
Ultimately, the federal judge who reversed Carter’s conviction noted the unjust role of race in the case. And, like all folk songs, the message of Dylan’s song became important on its own. Although the singer tells a story about one man, the song told the truth about wider problems in the criminal justice system.
Comedian David Brenner passed away on March 15, 2014 from cancer at the age of 78. For anyone who grew up watching Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, Brenner will always be associated with the show for his many appearances there.
Brenner, who was born on February 4, 1936 in Philadelphia, first appeared on national TV on the show on January 8, 1971. You may watch his debut appearance in the video below, which is still funny after all these years. At the end, Johnny calls Brenner back out to shake his hand.
Brenner made an impact in a number of ways. Before his successful career as a comedian, he was a writer, director, and producer of a large number of documentaries. In addition to his work on The Tonight Show and other shows, he wrote books and hosted four HBO specials. One of those HBO specials — Back with a Vengeance — ran in 2000, almost thirty years after his national TV debut. [2016 Update: Unfortunately, the video for the special is no longer available on YouTube.]
After the 1971 first Tonight Show appearance, a reporter asked Brenner what he wanted to do with his career. He responded, “I want to make as many people laugh, as heartily as they can, for as long as I can.”
After he died, Brenner’s website (which no longer exists as of 2024) noted that Brenner’s last act will be to bring smiles to people’s faces. His tombstone will read: If this is supposed to be a joke — then I don’t get it!” Reportedly, that language ended up on the flip side of the tombstone, with the front reading, “He lived, he died, but man did he live!”
What is your favorite David Brenner joke? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Comic legend Sid Caesar has passed away at the age of 91. After growing up in Yonkers, New York, Caesar went on to be one of the early pioneers of the new medium of television with his shows Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour in the 1950s. To a younger generation who do not get to see black and white shows repeated on television, those variety shows may seem to be from another world. But one can still see the genius and the way Caesar helped pave with way for shows we enjoy today. And much of his work is still funny, such as a clip with Caesar and Imogene Coca going to a health food restaurant (with waiter Carl Reiner). Check out some of their work on YouTube. RIP.
What is your favorite memory of Sid Caesar? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The great jazz bassist Charlie Haden has passed away at the age of 76 after a prolonged illness. Haden had a long and influential career, including being a part of the Ornette Coleman Quartet starting in the late 1950s and a part of the Liberation Music Orchestra starting in the late 1960s. Haden made the world a better place in other ways too, as a teacher and as an advocate for social justice.
, and later in a 2011 autobiography, 
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