She's written music for her first husband, Paul Bley, as well as for Art Farmer, Gary Burton, George Russell and Steve Swallow, to name a few. She enthusiastically embraced the avant-garde. Her work has a wide compositional range, as well as a healthy sense of humor. Prolific and agile, she's written music for Big Bands, choirs, chamber orchestras, small combos, trios and duos. Carla Bley is one of the great jazz composers. And this is Artworks, the weekly podcast produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. Jo Reed: That's composer, pianist, and 2015 NEA Jazz Master, Carla Bley. I'm glad that that all happened, and I realize now it was a big deal.
And making great strides ourselves in bringing music into a new place. Everything was exciting! Always listening to everything that was going on. "The Girl Who Cried Champagne" Trios. Watt, 2012Ĭarla Bley: Now that I look back, boy, I was so lucky. "Ginger And David Theme" Escalator Over The Hill. ACOA, 1970.Ĭarla Bley. "why" Escalator Over The Hill. JCOA, 1970.Ĭarla Bley. "Escalator Over The Hill" Escalator Over The Hill. JCOA, 1970.Ĭarla Bley. "Who Will Rescue You" Carla Bley's Big Band Goes to Church. Watt, 1996.Ĭarla Bley. "08 Death of Superman _ Dream Sequence#1 - Flying" The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu. Watt, 2007.Ĭarla Bley. The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu, Watt, 2007Ĭarla Bley. The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church, Watt, 1996 She continues to perform and record frequently, both with her own big band and a number of smaller ensembles, notably the Lost Chords (including bassist Steve Swallow, saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and drummer Billy Drummond).Ĭarla Bley/Paul Haines, Escalator over the Hill, JCOA, 1968-71 In 1997, a live production of Escalator over the Hill was staged in Germany, then toured Europe the following year.Īmong the awards bestowed upon Bley are a Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition (1972), the German Jazz Trophy "A Life for Jazz" (2009), and honorary doctorates from l’Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail (2012) and the New England Conservatory (2014).īley has toured all over the world, including Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and just about everywhere in Europe. She also began experimenting outside of jazz, joining Jack Bruce’s band in 1975, writing all the compositions for and performing on Nick Mason’s 1981 album Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports, and recording the soundtrack to the 1985 film Mortelle Randonnée. In 1972, Bley and Mantler started a new record label, Watt, on which she has since issued recordings of her work. In 1964, with her second husband, trumpeter Michael Mantler, she formed the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra and subsequently founded the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association, an independent record label focusing on more avant-garde forms of jazz, such as Bley’s collaboration with poet Paul Haines on the groundbreaking work Escalator over the Hill.īley’s compositions and arrangements reached wider audiences through such recordings as Gary Burton’s A Genuine Tong Funeral, an album dedicated to Bley’s first extended composition, and Charlie Haden’s The Liberation Music Orchestra. Immersed in the city’s jazz scene, she began to write compositions, which Paul Bley and a number of other musicians, such as Art Farmer, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, and Tony Williams, began to record. She moved to New York at age 17, working as a cigarette girl at the jazz club Birdland, where she met pianist Paul Bley, whom she married in 1957. Bley’s skills have been in demand even outside of jazz, including performing and recording with Jack Bruce, Robert Wyatt, and Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason.īley’s father, Emil Borg, was a church organist and piano teacher-he first introduced her to music when she was three, and she first heard jazz when she was 12. Her work demonstrates a wide compositional range as well as a healthy sense of humor. One of the premier composers of the last 50+ years, Carla Bley has written music for big bands, choirs, chamber orchestras, and small combos. I can think of many musicians who deserve this award, and won't be getting it. The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album 3½ stars and stated: " Live! is a treat, representing one of the finest performances by her and Mantler on record"."To receive the NEA Jazz Masters award is a great and unexpected honor. The Allmusic review by Brian Olewnick awarded the album 3 stars, stating: "Listeners looking for prime Carla Bley would do better to search out her earlier, far more adventurous and creative work". Reception Ĭritical reaction to the album is generally positive but varies. Live! is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1981 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1982.
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, California
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