Synopsis

Long revered among the all-time great jazz bassists, Charlie Haden has gone on to make essential contributions to a wide spectrum of genres: avant-garde, small ensemble, big band, world music, folk and gospel. This new documentary from award-winning Swiss-born filmmaker Reto Caduff offers an absorbing chronicle of Haden’s life and work-as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, educator, political activist and family man. A member of Ornette Coleman’s incomparable quartet in the 1960s, Haden has since led his own Quartet West and the larger Liberation Music Orchestra, collaborating along the way with jazz giants Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny and many others. The most recent album from the CalArts Jazz Program founder is the Grammy-nominated ‘Rambling Boy’, a collection that harkens back to Haden’s early days playing Americana and bluegrass on his parents’ radio show.

Director

• 
  • Reto Caduff
  • Born in Zurich, Switzerland. In his teenage years, he began designing album covers, posters, and other artwork for local bands, and at the age of 18, he founded the record label ‘Lux Noise.’ After working as a host at the Swiss National Radio, he became a producer and director at Swiss TV. He won the Best Documentary Award at the Zurich Film Festival in 2004 for his documentary on the legendary hard rock band ‘Krokus.’ He also co-directed ‘The Bitter Truth: The Economics of Oil,’ which aired on the Sundance Channel and was shown at over 30 film festivals worldwide.