Charlie Haden, Carla Bley - The Ballad of the Fallen (ECM, 1983)

This post is by Dan

Charlie Haden (b); Carla Bley (p, glksp); Don Cherry (tr); Sharon Freeman (frhn); Mick Goodrick (g); Jack Jeffers (tba); Michael Mantler (tr); Paul Motian (d, perc); Jim Pepper (ts, ss, fl); Dewey Redman (ts); Steve Slagle (as, ss, cl, fl); Gary Valente (tb)

Recorded November,1982

Ballad of the Fallen is the second of three albums by Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. It was preceded by 1970's Liberation Music Orchestra on the Impulse label and followed by1991's Dream Keeper on Blue Note. Like much of Haden's music, it holds social justice issues close to its heart. The approach in all three albums is similar: assemble a superb cast of performers, enlist the arranging talents of Carla Bley, and play as passion dictates. 

As I write, the world once again is witness to people fighting against fascism, this time in Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion. Haden and Bley's music is all the more poignant for its political relevance to this travesty. It also makes it more difficult for me to write about it. This is when the ears and heart need to engage with the music directly, or perhaps when the poets should take over the writing task. Some words that pop into my head as I listen: passionate, sobering, profound, liberating, mournful, inspirational, empathetic. I wonder how such despair can be so beautiful and suffering so inspirational. 

The gatefold album cover is instructive on the source of the various songs, most associated with struggles against fascism in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The poem from a slain student in El Salvador and a drawing from a Salvadoran refugee augment the poignancy of the music; these fallen give strength and purpose to the cause of liberation. 

On The Ballad of the Fallen, Haden and Bley's Liberation Music Orchestra delivers a masterpiece on the most sobering of issues facing peoples across the globe.