Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra

The Liberation Music Orchestra is a big band project by US-american jazz bassist Charlie Haden; jazz pianist Carla Bley is also one of the founders of the project. Their music is best characterized as some sort of big band free jazz, with the music dealing with rather revolutionary themes derived from the Spanish civil war, the rebellion and the civil wars in Latin America of the sixties and seventies, from the Vietnam war, and from the civil wars in Middle America. Some of the pieces are arrangements for big band of traditionals or songs from e.g. Bertolt Brecht or Victor Jara. The last album so far, Not in Our Name, deals with the situation in the USA in consideration of the war in Iraq.

The Liberation Music Orchestra isn't a regular ensemble, but comes together occasionally. Until now (2010) there are four studio album releases and a live album in the Montreal Tape Series of Charlie Haden (with material previously released on the studio albums). The music changed over the years from a very free (and revolutionary) habit to more mainstream and melancholic tunes.