Charlie Haden's LP, CD, & Cassette Collection Is Live

Ongoing database of music gathered over a lifetime

When my father died in 2014, his extensive music collection fell under the auspices of his wife, Ruth. She kept it in a storage warehouse, in her garage, and on shelves at her condo. When Ruth died in 2021, she left the archives to me. Over the past three years I’ve been adding titles to a database that encompasses every commercially available release acquired by Charlie beginning in the late 1950s, when he moved from his hometown of Springfield, MO. to Los Angeles. So far, this includes LPs, CDs, cassettes, and even 8-tracks.

Charlie stayed away from computers. He didn’t have an email address. He didn’t have a smart phone. He only listened to mp3s if forced to. He was a big believer in compact discs, and the percentage of CDs here reflects this. He was a high-end audio connoisseur. He read Stereophile every month. He took pride in his home audio system. He was reliant on a team of experts and engineers to help make sure his gear worked properly.

This is an ongoing process. I add items as I uncover them. I anticipate a complete, detailed accounting will be available to researchers sometime in the next five or ten years. There are two caveats. A small portion of CDs were sold at the court-ordered Estate sale of Charlie and Ruth’s belongings, and a small portion of LPs were destroyed in the Palisades fire of 2025.

I’ve chosen to use Discogs as an aid for the initial data input. Discogs isn’t perfect, but it’ll give anyone interested a window into the music that inspired Charlie. The current total registered is 2,133 individual titles. The default sorting is by most recent additions, but it can be browsed and searched by title, artist, and other indicators. Again, it isn’t perfect. Return often as I’m constantly adding stuff. Check it out here. Solid, Jackson.

Once again, the Charlie Haden collection database is here.

If you have some free time, check out my eBay store.

You are reading Josh Haden’s Mémoire on Substack, a memoir about life, death, jazz, slowcore, and survival. Please consider subscribing. You’ll be supporting my writing and the preservation of the Charlie Haden Estate.

All words & images © 2025 Josh Haden, except where noted. All rights reserved.