This double-CD offers two previously unreleased concerts by Charlie Haden, each one bearing some personal significance. The first was recorded in Santa Monica, Calif on Aug. 9 1987 - the bassist's 50th birthday. The second, dating from April 4, 1988, took place at Webster University in St. Louis, not far from Springfield, MO., the town where Haden grew up, as he writes in his notes from this disc "singing country music on the radio".

There's only one country lick on these discs, in a playful extended bass interlude in the midst of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman". From start to finish, though, Haden and his quartet offer sweet and satisfying performances, none of them venturing too far outside and all of it played with the breezy, understated swing of veterans for whom playing with polish and expression has long become second nature. The participants are easy to recognize -Ernie Watts in particular, with his big, old school sound. The authority of his delivery, more than the profundity of his conceptions, plays well with the crowd.

It's instructive to compare Watt's fleet but derivative choruses on "Nardis" and Charlie Parker's "Passport" with Haden thoughtful, spacious, rhythmically subtle and inventive improvisation, played unaccompanied or over Billy Higgins' simmering, more-felt-than-heard backup. His introduction to "Bay City", which opens Disc 2, is briefer but just as beautiful. His artistry is clearest in the first chorus of "Body & Soul", which conveys these qualities as well as a sense of effort and concentration.
Moments like these recur throughout The Private Collection, capturing Haden as a patient player, with a temperament unlike those of assist who bend in claiming their equal rights as virtuoso soloists. Some differences can be discerned between these two sets, the most apparent being the presence of Paul Motian on drums. He plays a little more freely than Higgins; when he takes an unexpected turn by dropping bombs during his "Bay City" solo, he creates more of an impression of inconsistency than his colleagues.