Jazz bassist Charlie Haden dies aged 76

Veteran jazz player Charlie Haden (left) with his Quartet West members performing at the Mosaic Music Festival 2011 at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 12 March 2011. -- PHOTO: THE ESPLANADE CO LTD
Veteran jazz player Charlie Haden (left) with his Quartet West members performing at the Mosaic Music Festival 2011 at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 12 March 2011. -- PHOTO: THE ESPLANADE CO LTD

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Grammy Award-winning Charlie Haden, a legendary jazz bassist who played with artists including John Coltrane and Chet Baker, died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 76.

Haden also joined pianist Keith Jarrett's ensemble in the 1960s and was considered as revolutionising double bass playing in jazz music.

He won three Grammy Awards, the most recent in 2004, and best Latin Jazz Album for Land of the Sun.

"It is with deep sorrow that we announce that Charlie Haden, born August 6, 1937 in Shenandoah, Iowa, passed away today at 10:11 Pacific time in Los Angeles after a prolonged illness," said ECM Records spokesman Tina Pelikan.

"Ruth Cameron, his wife of 30 years, and his children Josh Haden, Tanya Haden, Rachel Haden and Petra Haden were all by his side." Haden was an original member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, and collaborated with artists also including Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane and Billy Higgins, according to Billboard magazine.

In 1967 he joined Jarrett's band, before forming the group Old and New Dreams with Cherry, and the politically tinged Liberation Music Orchestra with composer Carla Bley, the journal said.

Over the years he also worked with figures including Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Konitz and Joe Henderson, as well as pop stars like Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, Rickie Lee Jones and Beck, according to Variety.

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