Charlie Haden has a very sweet, pretty sound on the bass. I heard him interviewed recently and he said he liked to hire musicians with similarly beautiful sounds. All to the good, one might think; what's wrong with beauty? But I find many of his ensembles of the past 15 years too sweet in sound. I realized that his sweet sound is most effective when contrasted with the harshness of Ornette's alto. He has a duet album. His duet with Alice Coltrane on harp is much less effective than his duet with OC. It's like in certain Thai restaurants where they add sugar to the food. You need a little bit of it when the food is hot, but when you order the same dish medium or mild the sugar becomes overpowering.

***

The way each dialect of Spanish has a distinctive intonational tune.