Produced by piXiu films and helmed by award-winning director Reto Caduff, the feature legth documentary “Charlie Haden” presents the life and work of the fascinating american musician, bandleader, composer, producer, educator, political activist and family man Charlie Haden.
Throughout his career, Haden has constantly sought to transcend the boundaries of modern music. Widely considered to be among the greatest ever jazz bassists, Haden has contributed pivotal music to a stunning scope of genres: avant-garde, small group, big band, world music, folk and gospel, to name but a few.
Haden’s deep resonance and rich melodicism helped Ornette Coleman introduce free jazz in the ’60s. And it is his collaboration with Coleman that has put Haden on the map ever since. In a career spanning five decades by now, Haden continues to create music that is at once revolutionary and uplifting.
“I want to expand jazz,” he says.
“I don’t want to keep the audience limited. I want to reach people who have never come to a jazz concert before. One way to do that is by making records that have a lot of different kinds of music on them.”
Music that comes from deep within the hearts of those involved resulting in something unique and unprecedented. For Charlie Haden, that instinctive, imaginative approach has been long been his guiding philosophy towards both life and music. The film dives not only into the fascinating life story of Haden but tries to get close to this philosophy and how it translates into his approach in creating music.
Charlie Haden explains:
“I try to bring together musicians that can make magic, and I’m usually right. It’s not so much the combination as it is the individual and their values. When I find a musician that has the same values as I do, I want to make music with him.”
This reminded director Reto Caduff of the similar way he works on his films:
“as in film, the way Charlie approaches a project is as a collaborative journey – where the quality can only ever be as good as the sum of its parts. With the right people on board, in the right place at the right time you can create amazing stuff.”
From the get-go it was clear for both director and subject that the film has to go beyond the generic filmed music story: an intimate look at the music and life of one of Jazz’ most inspiring and influential musicians. With access to Haden’s own personal archive, film sequences shot during concerts and recording sessions, interviews with an incredible selection of friends and collaborators and great archival footage, the documentary will please diehard jazz fans as well as the newly initiated.
Luke Geissbuhler + Reto Caduff (photo by Robert Frank)
About the Director
Originally trained in razor sharp, modern Swiss typography, Zurich born Reto Caduff’s true passion in life and work has been the magic of music. In his teens, he started designing record covers, posters and music fanzines for local bands and soon turned his interest to the whole record-making process, starting the record company Lux Noise at the age of 18. After producing and recording bands in Switzerland, London, Brussels or Sidney and shooting low budget music videos for his artists, Caduff moved on to work as host for a music show at National Radio and subsequently became a producer and director at Swiss National Television (starting with a music video clip show naturally).
Clip #1
1994 marked his move to New York where he directed documentaries, music videos as well as a 35mm short film shot in Tucson AZ. His documentaries at that time were on fascinating american subcultures such as lowrider fanatics, Native Americans, militia soldiers, UFO believers or gun-carrying school kids - all cut to his signature style of the perfectly matching soundtrack. In 2003, he directed the award winning documentary on the 25 year history of Switzerland’s most famous rock band: Krokus. The film was released theatricaly and on DVD
In 2005 he documented another band, the Lovebugs, on tour in Taiwan.
As a television director in his native Switzerland, he recently worked on the ratings hits “Popstars” and “MusicStar” (the American Idol of Switzerland).
He is also co-director of the critically acclaimed and award winning documentary A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash, depicting a gloomy future once we run out of cheap oil.
Sharing his time between Los Angeles and Zurich, he is now working on several documentaries as well as a first feature film and is a founding partner in the prodcution company piXiu films.
Credits
written+directed by Reto Caduff
producer: piXiu films/Reto Caduff + Laurin Merz
producer Swiss Television: Thomas Beck
producer 3sat: Frank Hubrath
Clip #2
financial support provided by: Bundesamt für Kultur, Teleproduktionsfonds
camera: Daniel Pfisterer & Luke Geissbuhler
editor: Barbara Landi
music by: Charlie Haden
soundmix: Peter Staubli
worldpremiere: January 2009
featured interviews in the film with: Charlie Haden, Ruth Cameron, Josh Haden, Haden triplets, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Carla Bley, Bruce Hornsby, Kenny Barron, Ethan Iverson, Steve Swallow, Ernie Watts, Alan Broadbent, Jean-Philippe Allard, Hans Wendl, Jay Cocks, Howard Mandel, Rodney Green.
length: 84 minutes, color and b/w, 16:9 stereo
worldrights:
piXiu films gmbh
Erismann Hof 2
CH-8004 Zurich/Switzerland
tel. +41 44 500 24 68
fax +41 44 500 24 69
The film on C. Haden's website: ~www.charliehadenmusic.com
Official website for "Rambling Boy": ~www.charliehadenfilm.com
"Rambling Boy" on imdb: ~www.imdb.com
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