- Liberation Music Orchestra
Liberation Music Orchestra is a large jazz ensemble led by US-American
jazz bassist Charlie Haden . The ensemble has been an occasional operation, with shifting personnel. Aside from Charlie Haden, composer and arrangerCarla Bley has had a great impact on the ensemble as she composed and arranged many of the group's works. The ensemble's music was very experimental in its earlier decades.Through Bley's arranging, the performances have concentrated on a wide palette of brass instruments, including tuba, French horn, and trombone, in addition to the more standard trumpet and reed section.Topical themes
The ensemble's pieces have reflected the
left-wing political concerns of Charlie Haden. Examples of these concerns have been theSpanish Civil War , theVietnam War and 1980s/1990sCentral American struggles against US-backed military dictatorships. The ensemble has explored the realms of free jazz and political music at the same time; specifically, the ensemble's first, self-titled album focused on theSpanish Civil War . The Liberation Music Orchestra's 1983 album "The Ballad of the Fallen " commented again on the Spanish Civil War as well as the political instability and US involvement in Central America. In 1990 the orchestra returned with "Dream Keeper ", a more heterogeneous album which drew on Americangospel music and South African music to comment on politics in Latin America andapartheid in South Africa. The album featured choral contributions from the Oakland Youth Chorus.In 2005, Haden reconvened his Liberation Music Orchestra, with largely new members, for a new album, released on
Verve Records , called "Not In Our Name". The album dealt primarily with the contemporary political situation in the United States, and was the first appearance of the orchestra since 1990's "Dream Keeper".Personnel
Aside from Bley, members have included
Gato Barbieri , Sam Brown, Chris Cheek, Don Cherry,Curtis Fowlkes ,Sharon Freeman ,Mick Goodrick ,Michael Mantler ,Paul Motian ,Amina Claudine Myers ,Dewey Redman ,Perry Robinson ,Roswell Rudd andMiguel Zenon .Discography
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Liberation Music Orchestra (album) " (1969) (Impulse! )
*"Ballad of the Fallen " (1983) (ECM)
*"The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra" (released 1999, recorded live on July 8, 1989) (Verve Records ) [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w9fexqwkldke] [http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/product.aspx?ob=prd&src=list&pid=9764]
*"Dream Keeper " (1990) (Blue Note Records )
*"Not in Our Name" (2005) (Verve Records )ee also
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List of experimental big bands
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