Paul Bley

[Daniel A]

I don't have any Paul Bley albums. In fact, I'm not even sure I know what Paul Bley's playing sounds like.

1. Should I be ashamed?

2. Where should I start?

(I checked a couple of the AMG reviews of his albums. Eugene Chadbourne's - who's that, anyway? - review of Blay's Savoy album 'Footloose!' is patently absurd: *link*)

[md655321]

Open, To Love is a great solo disc of his.

Closer is a fantastic trio disc.

As for how he sounds... Some have suggested he is Keith Jarrett's daddy with a healthy dose of the avante.

[Chuck Nessa]

Eugene Chadbourne's - who's that, anyway? - review of Blay's Savoy album 'Footloose!' is patently absurd: *link*)

1. Eugene Chadbourne is an interesting musician.

2. His "review" is obviously copped (out of context) from some other source. The reference to Byg, etc should be a tip off.

3. Just another way AMG messes up the world.

Paul is a fascinating pianist. I'm sure you will get a bunch of good recommendations.

[ep1str0phy]

Eugene Chadbourne's - who's that, anyway? - review of Blay's Savoy album 'Footloose!' is patently absurd: *link*)

1. Eugene Chadbourne is an interesting musician.

2. His "review" is obviously copped (out of context) from some other source. The reference to Byg, etc should be a tip off.

3. Just another way AMG messes up the world.

Paul is a fascinating pianist. I'm sure you will get a bunch of good recommendations.

And Footloose! is a great album, IMO. Very accessible post-bop/early free sides, many composed by Carla Bley.

[catesta]

This is my only Bley.

[Guy Berger]

As for how he sounds... Some have suggested he is Keith Jarrett's daddy with a healthy dose of the avante.

I'd restate this as "he is the daddy of Keith Jarrett's more avant-garde playing."

Guy

[gnhrtg]

I like and recommend,

Hommage to Carla (Owl), solo

Partners (Owl), duo with Gary Peacock

Time Will Tell (ECM), trio with Evan Parker and Barre Phillips, I have not heard Sankt Gerold nearly as many times but I like this better

Not Two, Not One (ECM), trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian

Bebop (Steeplechase), with Bob Cranshaw and Keith Copeland is also good.

Most importantly, these albums are all fairly different, yet Bley is pretty much himself on all of them. I'm less fond of the solo albums which contain longer tracks (like the recent Nothing to Declare).

[Aggie87]

Don't miss the recordings with Jim Giuffre and Steve Swallow:

Fusion - 1961

Thesis - 1961

Flight, Bremen 1961

Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961

Free Fall - 1962

Life of a Trio, Saturday - 1989

Life of a Trio, Sunday - 1989

Fly Away Little Bird - 1992

Conversations with a Goose - 1996

[Nate Dorward]

The Chadbourne review seems fine to me, he's simply commenting on the BYG reissue of the album. Is Footloose currently in print? If so, it's an excellent place to start with Bley. Great, great music, & yeah, you can tell that JArrett copped a lot off this album in particular.

Another favourite Bley performance is his duet with Bill Evans on George Russell's Jazz in the Space Age--easily the most way-out thing Evans ever did. -- & Bley's performances on that Giuffre 2fer from Hatology are extraordinary, even better than the studio albums.

[ep1str0phy]

The Chadbourne review seems fine to me, he's simply commenting on the BYG reissue of the album. Is Footloose currently in print? If so, it's an excellent place to start with Bley. Great, great music, & yeah, you can tell that JArrett copped a lot off this album in particular.

Another favourite Bley performance is his duet with Bill Evans on George Russell's Jazz in the Space Age--easily the most way-out thing Evans ever did. -- & Bley's performances on that Giuffre 2fer from Hatology are extraordinary, even better than the studio albums.

I'm pretty sure it's OOP--my copy is a Savoy reissue from the mid/late 90's (some of these floating around, I guess). As far as Guy's comment goes--I'm laughing on the outside.

[Guy Berger]

As far as Guy's comment goes--I'm laughing on the outside.

??

[ep1str0phy]

As far as Guy's comment goes--I'm laughing on the outside.

??

Nevermind--I had a case of spontaneous dyslexia. Excellent for confusing discourse.

[SEK]

Paul Bley recordings that enrich my life:

Solo set from NPR's "Jazz Alive!" ~late'70s

"Axis" (IAI)

"Tango Palace" (Soul Note)

4tet with John Gilmore (Savoy)

"Solo Piano" (SteepleChase)

"Paul Plays Carla" (SteepleChase)

"Annette" (hatART)

[brownie]

Always liked Paul Bley's music but I think that with age, he has gained a maturity that shows in the depth that emerges from his recordings of the past decades.

Some excellent ones have been mentioned. The hommages to Annette (HatHut) and Carla (Owl) are must-haves!

Several others that are worth looking for:

- 'Solo Piano' (SteepleChase)

- Sweet Time (Justin Time),

- 'Notes' (Soul Note), duos with Paul Motian,

- 'Chaos (Soul Note), with Tony Oxley,

- 'Hands On' (Evidence),

- 'Basics' (Justin Time)

...but there so many more excellent ones!

Don't think there is a bad Paul Bley album of late.

A couple should be avoided (including 'Improvisie', reissued recently on America), but these date from the '70s!

[Alfred]

Don't miss the recordings with Jim Giuffre and Steve Swallow:

Fusion - 1961

Thesis - 1961

Flight, Bremen 1961

Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961

Free Fall - 1962

Life of a Trio, Saturday - 1989

Life of a Trio, Sunday - 1989

Fly Away Little Bird - 1992

Conversations with a Goose - 1996

Aggie is right (although he is fan of the VfB ). These are all fantastic recordings. The 2 CD or LP ECM set 1961 (contains Fusion and Thesis) is highly recommended, the 2CD hatOLOGY set Emphasis & Flight, 1961 as well.

As a leader the following are recommended (some of them have been mentioned):

Introducing, Debut 1953

Footloose!, Savoy 1962

Closer, ESP 1965

with Gary Peacock, ECM 1970

Homage to Carla, OWL 1992

Mindset, Soul Note 1992

Not two, not one, 1998

[Alexander Hawkins]

I'm a big fan of 'Barrage' on ESP, with Dewey Johnson, Marshall Allen, Eddie Gomez and Milford Graves.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, that is a hell of a record - a nice complement to "Turning Point" on IAI, with Gilmore, Swallow and Motian. Supposedly some rehearsals with Giuseppi Logan in place of Marshall were taped, though I'm willing to bet that the apartment fire of the 1970s relegated those to being lost.

I like "Blood," on International Polydor, a lot, though Chadbourne would disagree. There's also another "Blood" on Fontana, which is pretty great as well.

Fuck it, I like pretty much every Bley I've heard, with only a scant few exceptions... and taken in context, even the electronic affairs are kinda neat.

[Guy Berger]

Paul Motian's thoughts on playing with Bley in the 60s:

Paul: Well, it seemed to me that that was an extension. Here I was playing with Bill, and at times with Gary Peacock, and then here I was playing with Paul Bley and Gary Peacock. And to me that was kind of an extension… well, I don't know, it was different, I don't know if extension is the right word. But it seemed to me at the time that happened that that was the direction to go into. It seemed to me that Bill Evans at that time was standing still, and we weren't going anywhere. We had reached (laughs) the mountain top and that was it! And I kind of felt like with Paul Bley that there was another mountain here, man. And at that time, which was the mid-sixties, there was a lot of changes going on in music in New York. And hooking up with Paul Bley, it seemed like the music got even freer, even more open, and it was possible to play different, to extend the shit from what I was doing before.We kind of talked about just getting away from the normal way of playing, sort of playing more with the music as it was happening. I don't think it changed me radically. Playing with Bill Evans I felt like I opened up some things just from what I was hearing from Scott. And playing with Paul and with Gary Peacock just seemed to open it up more, I just played what I heard and what these guys were playing, and I kind of went along with that and played… Some of the things we were doing with Paul, all of a sudden there was no restrictions, you know, there was not even any form, it was completely free, almost chaotic, you know? With Paul there was form on a lot of things, but for the first time shit was happening where it really just opened up. And then playing with Keith later just really took that again, even more.

[king ubu]

Can't add a lot, I own some 5 or 6 Bley albums, plus some of the Giuffre stuff (those are all worth getting!), but I want to add another recommendation for "Homage to Carla"! Love that one!

[marcello]

Frank Kimbrough is producing this duet with Bley in the coming year:

May 22 – Paul Bley/Frank Kimbrough Duo – Merkin Hall, NYC

I hope Palmetto records it.

Edited December 5, 2005 by marcello

[David Ayers]

Some early Bleys are in poor sound and short measure, though interesting (e.g. the ESPs, the Haarlem). Some, to my mind, lack bite, even (for ME anyway) such praised disks as 12+6 (right title? on Hat) and the reunions with Giuffre. The early stuff with Giuffre is some of the best; the ECM with Parker is good (maybe there is more than one?); the Hillcrest club recordings with Ornette are invaluable but hard to find and in rough sound. Just my opinions, and there's more Bley I haven't heard than I have. Quite a few of his LPs have been and gone in my collection without impressing me too much, though I like Bley and I like the idea of Bley.

[fent99]

I'd agree with David above that some of the records I like the idea of rather than listening to.

Exceptions to this are:

Closer on ESP and again to agree with David its short measure but marvellously concise. Still wish he'd stretched some of the tunes out a bit further...

Turning Point on IAI with Gilmore on board this is an underrated classic (also available as a Savoy compilation)

Open, to Love on ECM Not everyone loves the sound but the reading of Ida Lupino here is magesterial.

Close behind are:

Introducing...

Footloose

and an unlikely live festival duets album with Gary Burton

[AllenLowe]

thank you Nate - nothing wrong with that Chadbourne review, it's right on the money - Bley is a great pianist and brilliant guy; read his autobiography and also the new book of interviews that just came out. He's had a lot of fascinating stuff to say, especially insightful on Sonny Rollins.

He's also a nice and personable guy, just moved to Floriday (I got an email the other day) and told me once about how one of the ESP's was reissued something like a quarter done off - and he was right, as I listened to it and tried to play along -

He not only was the first guy to hire Ornette, but was playing "free" duets with a trumpeter (whose name escapes me) in the 1950s - he also has a great story about getting mortally sick at a Hollywood party that he was playing, and how he was saved only by the alertness of Lucille Ball, who called an ambulance.

Listen, as well, to the piano duet he does with Bill Evans on that George Russell record - as Paul has pointed out, Evans copped his stuff directly on that, and basically learned how to play "free" -

Edited December 5, 2005 by AllenLowe

[gnhrtg]

About the Giuffre trio albums - Yes, I've not immersed myself as much in the reunion stuff, for which there might be a reason, but from what I've read and heard, certainly go for the two double disc sets, on Hat and ECM, and Free Fall, first.

[Nate Dorward]

Truthfully, I "appreciate" the 1980s/1990s Giuffre trio albums rather than really like them a lot, mostly. Whereas the 1961-62 albums I could listen to over & over--they're simply endlessly fascinating music.

Chadbourne is one of the few competent, interesting reviewers at AMG so I find it odd that people would jump on him! I hope one of these days someone gets a book out of the man--anyone who's read some of his longer liner-notes essays (e.g. the brilliant piece in The Hills Have Jazz) will know what I mean. Not sure I like his music a lot, but he can really write & he must have a hell of a record collection.