2007 · Album
Long Ago and Far Away
Recorded 2007 · Impulse! Records · Released: 2018
Two Voices Across a Decade of Silence
Haden and Mehldau find intimacy in restraint, each phrase breathing with purpose and space.
Long Ago and Far Away arrived a full decade after it was recorded, and that delay tells you something about how jazz reissues work — sometimes the best material sits in a vault until the moment is right. When Impulse! finally released it in 2018, it landed with immediate recognition from serious listeners. Jazz Forum gave it five stars, and Jazzwise called it essential, validating what anyone paying attention could hear: this is Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau operating at a level of mutual understanding that only happens between musicians who trust each other completely.
The album is a duo record, just bass and piano, which means there is nowhere to hide. Mehldau's touch is spare and conversational — he leaves space the way a good listener leaves silence in a room. Haden responds with the kind of melodic sensibility that made him one of the most important voices in jazz, his bass lines moving with intention rather than decoration. They trade ideas across standards and originals without ever sounding rushed or overly formal. The recording captures something that feels almost private, as if you have walked into a living room where two musicians are simply playing for each other.
This is not Haden's peak — that came earlier in his career — nor is it a turning point in either artist's trajectory. What it is: a late-career record of genuine substance, proof that two skilled improvisers can make something real with minimal resources. If you already know Haden's work with Ornette Coleman or his later ballad recordings, this sits comfortably alongside those, showing how little he needed to say something worth hearing.
Who's playing
Charlie Hadenbass
Brad Mehldaupiano
Where next?
More by Charlie Haden
All 44 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
