18 December 2012
The Recording Academy has announced a number of Special Merit Awards to be awarded at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards on 10th Feb 2013. We are very pleased to say that this year's honorees include one of the Naim's longtime friends and recording artists; the legendary double bass player, composer and educator Charlie Haden.
Determined by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees, the Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to their field of recording.
A three-time Grammy winner Charlie Haden is an all-American jazz musician best known for his signature lyrical bass lines and his ability to liberate the bass from an accompanying role. In addition to his groundbreaking work as an original member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, he has collaborated with such jazz artists as Chet Baker, Ed Blackwell, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Billy Higgins, Art Pepper, and Archie Shepp. Throughout his five decade career, Haden has revolutionized the harmonic concept of bass playing and has covered such genres as free jazz, Portuguese fado and vintage country.
Naim have been privileged to release a wide range of Charlie's music over the past twenty years. It all started with a special limited edition recording of Charlie's own 50th birthday concert (with Quartet West's Alan Broadbent, Ernie Watts AND the late great Billy Higgins on drums) - this is now on general release as part of The Private Collection. At Naim, we have always afforded Charlie complete creative flexibility, and for that reason Naim have been lucky enough to also work together on a series of special duo recordings away from Charlie's impressive major label exploits, including some of the unsung heroes of the international jazz scene (handpicked of course by Charlie himself); Chris Anderson (New York), John Taylor (UK), Mike Melvoin (Los Angeles), Laurence Hobgood (Chicago) and Naim's own Antonio Forcione (Italy).
Congratulations to Charlie Haden on receiving such a prestigious award for recognition of all your amazing musical work and beyond. We're extremely proud to be working with you.
CLICK HERE to find out more about our special celebratory offer on all 24/96 Hi Def downloads featuring Charlie Haden.