Carla Bley
Information about Carla Bley
Carla Bley, née Borg, (born May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill (released as a triple LP set), as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer and her ex-husband Paul Bley.
Bley was born in Oakland, California. Her father, a piano teacher and church choirmaster, encouraged her to sing and to learn to play the piano. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen,[1] she moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland, where she met jazz pianist Bley, whom she married in 1957.[2] He encouraged her to start composing. The two later divorced.
Her compositions were soon beginning to appear on record — for example, "Bent Eagle" on George Russell's Stratusphunk in 1960, and then Ictus on Jimmy Giuffre's Thesis and Paul Bley's Barrage.
In 1964 she was involved in organising the Jazz Composers Guild which brought together the most innovative musicians in New York at the time. She then had a personal and professional relationship with Michael Mantler, with whom she had a daughter, Karen, now also a musician in her own right.
With Mantler, she co-led the Jazz Composers' Orchestra and started the JCOA record label which issued a number of historic recordings by Clifford Thornton, Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd, as well as her own magnus opus Escalator Over The Hill and Mantler's Jazz Composers' Orchestra LPs. Bley and Mantler followed with WATT records, which has issued their recordings exclusively since the early 1970s. Bley and Mantler were pioneers in the development of independent artist-owned record labels and also started the now defunct New Music Distribution Service which specialized in small, independent labels that issued recordings of creative improvised music.
Bley has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Jack Bruce, Robert Wyatt and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, whose 1981 solo album Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports was a Carla Bley album in all but name. She arranged and composed music for Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, and wrote A Genuine Tong Funeral for Gary Burton. Her arrangement of the music for Federico Fellini's 8½ appeared on Hal Willner's Nino Rota tribute record, Amarcord Nino Rota. She has also contributed to other Hal Willner projects, including the song "Misterioso" for the tribute to Thelonious Monk entitled "That's the Way I Feel Now", which included Johnny Griffin as guest musician on tenor saxophone, and the Willner-directed tribute to Kurt Weill, entitled "", where she and her band contributed an arrangement of the title track, with Phil Woods as guest musician on alto saxophone. In the late 1980s, she also performed with Anton Fier's Golden Palominos and played on their 1985 album, Visions of Excess.
Carla Bley has continued to record frequently with her own big band and a number of smaller ensembles. Her partner, the bassist Steve Swallow, has been her closest and most consistent musical associate in recent years. In 1997, a live version of Escalator over the Hill (re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman) was performed for the first time in Cologne, Germany; in 1998 "Escalator" toured Europe, and another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen, Germany.
In 2005 she arranged the music for and performed on Charlie Haden's latest Liberation Music Orchestra tour and recording, Not in Our Name.
She has worked with original band member of Blood, Sweat and Tears notable Lew Soloff from New York City, on two CD records.
Don Cherry (November 18 1936–October 19 1995) was an innovative jazz trumpeter probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
..... Click the link for more information.
Bley was born in Oakland, California. Her father, a piano teacher and church choirmaster, encouraged her to sing and to learn to play the piano. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen,[1] she moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland, where she met jazz pianist Bley, whom she married in 1957.[2] He encouraged her to start composing. The two later divorced.
Her compositions were soon beginning to appear on record — for example, "Bent Eagle" on George Russell's Stratusphunk in 1960, and then Ictus on Jimmy Giuffre's Thesis and Paul Bley's Barrage.
In 1964 she was involved in organising the Jazz Composers Guild which brought together the most innovative musicians in New York at the time. She then had a personal and professional relationship with Michael Mantler, with whom she had a daughter, Karen, now also a musician in her own right.
With Mantler, she co-led the Jazz Composers' Orchestra and started the JCOA record label which issued a number of historic recordings by Clifford Thornton, Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd, as well as her own magnus opus Escalator Over The Hill and Mantler's Jazz Composers' Orchestra LPs. Bley and Mantler followed with WATT records, which has issued their recordings exclusively since the early 1970s. Bley and Mantler were pioneers in the development of independent artist-owned record labels and also started the now defunct New Music Distribution Service which specialized in small, independent labels that issued recordings of creative improvised music.
Bley has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Jack Bruce, Robert Wyatt and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, whose 1981 solo album Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports was a Carla Bley album in all but name. She arranged and composed music for Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, and wrote A Genuine Tong Funeral for Gary Burton. Her arrangement of the music for Federico Fellini's 8½ appeared on Hal Willner's Nino Rota tribute record, Amarcord Nino Rota. She has also contributed to other Hal Willner projects, including the song "Misterioso" for the tribute to Thelonious Monk entitled "That's the Way I Feel Now", which included Johnny Griffin as guest musician on tenor saxophone, and the Willner-directed tribute to Kurt Weill, entitled "", where she and her band contributed an arrangement of the title track, with Phil Woods as guest musician on alto saxophone. In the late 1980s, she also performed with Anton Fier's Golden Palominos and played on their 1985 album, Visions of Excess.
Carla Bley has continued to record frequently with her own big band and a number of smaller ensembles. Her partner, the bassist Steve Swallow, has been her closest and most consistent musical associate in recent years. In 1997, a live version of Escalator over the Hill (re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman) was performed for the first time in Cologne, Germany; in 1998 "Escalator" toured Europe, and another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen, Germany.
In 2005 she arranged the music for and performed on Charlie Haden's latest Liberation Music Orchestra tour and recording, Not in Our Name.
She has worked with original band member of Blood, Sweat and Tears notable Lew Soloff from New York City, on two CD records.
Discography
)
- 1971: Escalator over the Hill (Carla Bley and Paul Haines)
- 1974: Tropic Appetites (Carla Bley)
- 1975: Live in 75' (The Jack Bruce band)
- 1977: Dinner Music (Carla Bley)
- 1978: European Tour 1977 (Carla Bley Band)
- 1979: Musique Mecanique (Carla Bley Band)
- 1981: Fictitious Sports (Nick Mason, recorded 1979)
- 1981: Social Studies (Carla Bley Band)
- 1982: Live! (Carla Bley Band)
- 1983: The Ballad of the Fallen (Charlie Haden and Carla Bley)
- 1984: I Hate to Sing (Carla Bley Band)
- 1984: Heavy Heart (Carla Bley)
- 1985: Night-Glo (Carla Bley)
- 1987: Sextet (Carla Bley)
- 1988: Duets (Carla Bley and Steve Swallow)
- 1989: Fleur Carnivore (Carla Bley)
- 1991: The Very Big Carla Bley Band (Carla Bley Band)
- 1992: Go Together (Carla Bley and Steve Swallow)
- 1993: Big Band Theory (Carla Bley)
- 1994: Songs with Legs (Carla Bley)
- 1996: ...Goes to Church (Carla Bley Big Band)
- 1998: Fancy Chamber Music (Carla Bley)
- 2000: 4x4 (Carla Bley)
- 2003: Looking for America (Carla Bley Big Band)
- 2004: The Lost Chords (Carla Bley)
- 2007: The Lost Chords find Paolo Fresu (Carla Bley)
Compositions on albums by other performers
- 1967: Genuine Tong Funeral (Gary Burton)
- 1969: Liberation Music Orchestra (Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra)
- 1975: Dreams So Real (Gary Burton)
- 1990: Dream Keeper (with Charlie Haden / Liberation Music Orchestra)
- 2005: Not in Our Name (with Charlie Haden / Liberation Music Orchestra)
DVD–video
- 1983/2003: Live in Montreal
See also
References
1. ^ Ben Sidran, Talking Jazz: An Illustrated Oral History, Pomegranate Artbooks, 1992
2. ^ Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994
2. ^ Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994
External links
- Official Carla Bley Website
- EJN: Carla Bley
- Carla Bley in conversation with Frank J. Oteri
- Watt/XtraWatt music label
May 11 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in and around New Orleans.
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Jazz has been called "America's only original art form...... Click the link for more information.
composer is a person who writes music. The term refers particularly to someone who writes music in some type of musical notation, thus allowing others to perform the music. This distinguishes the composer from a musician who improvises or plays a musical instrument.
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Jazz Piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. The instrument is also a vital tool in the understanding of jazz theory and arranging, because of its combined melodic and harmonic nature.
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An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ.
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Free jazz is a movement of jazz music developed in the 1950s and 1960s by artists such as Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Joe Harriott, Archie Shepp, Mary Lou Williams, John Tchicai, Bill Dixon, Paul Bley, Hal Russell and Sun Ra.
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Opera is a form of musical and dramatic work in which singers convey the drama.[1] Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition.[2] An opera performance incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and
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Tropic Appetites
(1974)
Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by
..... Click the link for more information.
(1974)
Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by
..... Click the link for more information.
Gary Burton (b. Anderson, IN, January 23 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist and composer.
Having been self-taught on the vibraphone, Burton developed a style of four-mallet chording as an alternative to the usual two-mallets.
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Having been self-taught on the vibraphone, Burton developed a style of four-mallet chording as an alternative to the usual two-mallets.
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James Peter Giuffre (born in Dallas, Texas, April 26, 1921) is an American jazz composer, arranger and saxophone and clarinet player.
Giuffre first became known as an arranger for Woody Herman's big band, for which he wrote the celebrated "Four Brothers" (1947).
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Giuffre first became known as an arranger for Woody Herman's big band, for which he wrote the celebrated "Four Brothers" (1947).
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George Allen Russell (born June 23, 1923) is an American jazz pianist, composer and theorist. He is considered one of the first jazz musicians to contribute to general music theory, with his 1953 book, The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization.
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Arthur Stewart (Art) Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999), was the son of a steelworker born in Council Bluffs, Iowa who went on to become a fairly well-known American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player.
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Paul Bley is a free jazz pianist born in Montreal, Canada in 1932 and long-time resident in the United States. His music characteristically features strong senses both of melodic voicing and space.
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Roller skating is travelling on smooth terrain with roller skates. It is a form of recreation as well as a sport, and can also be a form of transportation. Skates generally come in two basic varieties: inline skates, and traditional quad skates, though some have experimented with a
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Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City in 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan[1], was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979[1].
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(1961) Thesis
(1961) Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961
(1961)
Thesis is a 1961 album by the Jimmy Giuffre 3.
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(1961) Thesis
(1961) Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961
(1961)
Thesis is a 1961 album by the Jimmy Giuffre 3.
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Michael Mantler (born August 10 1943) is an Austrian trumpeter and composer in new jazz and contemporary music.
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Career: United States
Mantler was born in Vienna. He went to the United States in 1962 to study music, and after early activities in the New York avant garde,..... Click the link for more information.
Jazz Composer's Orchestra was a jazz group founded in 1965 to further avant-garde jazz in New York City. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style.
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Clifford Thornton (September 6, 1936 - 1989) was an American free jazz trumpeter and trombonist. Born in Philadelphia in 1936, he studied with trumpeter Donald Byrd in the mid-1950s and worked with various players such as tuba player Ray Draper.
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- For other individuals named Don Cherry, see Don Cherry.
Don Cherry (November 18 1936–October 19 1995) was an innovative jazz trumpeter probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman.
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Roswell Rudd (born Roswell Hopkins Rudd, Jr. in Sharon, Connecticut, on November 17, 1935) is an American jazz trombonist. Although skilled in all styles of jazz (including dixieland, which he performed while in college), he is known primarily for his work in free and
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Tropic Appetites
(1974)
Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by
..... Click the link for more information.
(1974)
Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by
..... Click the link for more information.
WATT
City of license Cadillac, Michigan
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First air date 1945
Frequency 1240 kHz
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Power 1,000 watts
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City of license Cadillac, Michigan
Broadcast area [1]
Branding NewsTalk 1240
First air date 1945
Frequency 1240 kHz
Format News-Talk-Sports
Power 1,000 watts
Class C
Owner MacDonald Garber Broadcasting
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