'When we play together, it's like two people singing," said the pianist Keith Jarrett of his 47-year partnership with the double-bassist Charlie Haden, who has died aged 76. That partnership, sealed earlier this year by the presciently titled album Last Dance, applied empathy, rigour and realism to the emotions of romantic songs.
Haden was no discreet prowler of chord-changes, quietly marking the bottom line and standing back from the stars. When his vaudeville childhood ended (he was the yodelling toddler Cowboy Charlie with the Haden Family hillbilly band and remained a member until the age of 15), he became a jazz bassist whose life was turned around by the revolutionary saxophonist Ornette Coleman, whose groundbreaking quartet he joined in 1959.
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