''The Golden Number'' is an album of four

duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

s by bassist

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...

recorded in 1976 and released on the

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

label in 1977. It was the second of Haden's two duet releases on Horizon, the previous being '' Closeness'' (1976). Haden’s duet partners are trumpeter

Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the A ...

(also playing flute), tenor saxophonist

Archie Shepp Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz. Biography Early life Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...

, pianist

Hampton Hawes Hampton Barnett Hawes Jr. (November 13, 1928 – May 22, 1977) was an American jazz pianist. He was the author of the memoir ''Raise Up Off Me'', which won the Deems-Taylor Award for music writing in 1975. Early life Hampton Hawes was born on No ...

and alto saxophonist

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

(here playing trumpet). Hawes died shortly before the album’s release, and Haden dedicated the work to him in the liner notes.

Reception

The editors of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

awarded the album 4 stars, and

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Life and career Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...

's review states: "In general, the music is quite intriguing and has its share of variety."Yanow, S
AllMusic review
Retrieved November 30, 2011. Pianist and composer

Ethan Iverson Ethan Iverson (born February 11, 1973) is a pianist, composer, and critic best known for his work in the avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. Biography Iverson was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin. ...

called the album "essential," and singled out "Turnaround" for praise, writing: "Hawes is with Haden every second, reacting to those outer-space notes with faultless choices and never with too much left hand. There's even something Ornette-ish about a few of Hawes's phrases, and the last 'heraldic' stuff is pure Don Cherry."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Charlie Haden except as indicated'' # "Out of Focus" - 7:27 # "Shepp's Way" - 12:07 # "Turnaround" (Ornette Coleman) - 7:52 # "Golden Number" - 12:28 :*Recorded at Kendun Recorders in Burbank, California, on June 7, 1976, (track 1), at Village Recorder in Los Angeles on August 21, 1976, (track 3) and at Generation Sound in New York City on December 19 (track 4) and December 20 (track 2), 1976.

Personnel

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double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

—

pocket trumpet 250px, Pocket trumpet in B-flat, with a standard size bell and medium-large bore The pocket trumpet is a B♭ or C trumpet that is constructed with the tubing wound into a much smaller coil than a standard trumpet, generally with a smaller diam ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(track 1) *

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tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

(track 2) *

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piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(track 3) *

—

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

(track 4)

References

Horizon Records albums Charlie Haden albums 1977 collaborative albums {{1970s-jazz-album-stub