Born into a music-centered family, Charlie Haden began performing country & western music both on tour and on the family's daily radio broadcasts at a very young age. At the age of 15 he contracted polio, which both prevented his participation in the family act and permanently ended his singing career. Switching to the upright bass, in 1957 Haden moved to Los Angeles and began playing jazz, eventually pairing up with pianist Paul Bley. It was through Bley that he first met Ornette Coleman; by 1959 he had followed Coleman to New York and joined The Ornette Coleman Quartet.