Paul Bley

[clifford_thornton]

I have that material; remember it being pretty strong.

Ronnie Ross is on it also. I believe it is he playing bass clarinet. Atilla Zoller is on guitar for several tracks.

[Late]

Yeah, and Lasha on tenor?

Nope. Now that I listen to the set ... it's definitely alto. The notes I found were sketchy at best. Still, the music's pretty good. Too bad this (one-time?) group couldn't have gone into the studio just once while in Germany. Koller's great on this one.

[clifford_thornton]

(Still curious about Lasha's West Coast connection with Coltrane ... )

PL: "Prior to that departure, Miles Davis was appearing at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, and they had a concert in Oakland for the police ball. He had John Coltrane with him, and there was a reviewer named Russell Wilson who gave John bad write-ups all over San Francisco. They were doing this concert and I arrived early, and John’s horn wasn’t working. Simmons and I were backstage, and I said “give me the horn, man.” I worked on it for about twelve or fourteen minutes and I fixed the leaks and all that. Coltrane said “I just got it from the music store down on 47th before I got here.” There was something they didn’t do to it, and I fixed all the discrepancies on the horn, gave it back to him, and John went out and played so much beautiful music while this little ugly motherfucker with brown suede shoes was looking at me [Miles]. I was looking at him because I’m pretty too, and he was happy that John was playing so much. He was wondering who I was! John and I became lifelong friends after that."

From the interview I did with him at AAJ (I knew there was bound to be something in there...).

[Late]

Thanks, C.

[AllenLowe]

found this interesting, referring to Miles:

"I was looking at him because I’m pretty too"

[ep1str0phy]

found this interesting, referring to Miles:

"I was looking at him because I’m pretty too"

Yeah, I remember that line standing out when I first read the interview. I love Prince Lasha.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, he's about as hip as they come...

[Niko]

I have that material; remember it being pretty strong.

Ronnie Ross is on it also. I believe it is he playing bass clarinet. Atilla Zoller is on guitar for several tracks.

Thank you Late for the link! according to the Prince Lasha page at Sonny Simmons homepage

http://www.sonnysimmons.org/lasha.htm

there were two Hamburg radio broadcasts...

The Jazz Composers Orchestra

(NDR radio broadcast) rec. 65.10.25

broad. 1965

Slow Dance - Start - Cartoon - Communications No. 6.

Michael Mantler : trumpet. Steve Lacy : soprano sax. Prince Lasha : alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet. Hans Koller : tenor sax. Ronnie Ross : baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet. Attila Zoller : guitar. Carla Bley, Paul Bley : piano. Kent Carter : bass. Barry Altschul : drums.

Rec. in Hamburg, Germany.

The Jazz Composers Orchestra

(NDR radio broadcast) rec. 65.10.29

broad. 1965

Touching - Isis - Cartoon - Both - Walking Batteriewoman - Communications No. 7 - Slow Dance - Closer - Doctor - Floater - Communications No. 6.

Michael Mantler : trumpet. Steve Lacy : soprano sax. Prince Lasha : alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet. Hans Koller : tenor sax. Ronnie Ross : baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet. Attila Zoller : guitar. Carla Bley, Paul Bley : piano. Kent Carter : bass. Barry Altschul : drums.

Rec. in Hamburg, Germany.

[Late]

The concert comes from this blog. There are six tracks for the Bley, and it looks like a combination of the shows that Niko posted.

Make sure to grab the Coxhill when you visit that link. It's the poop.

[Guy Berger]

Ethan Iverson on Paul Bley (I thought the comments on Bley's left hand were interesting):

While my relationship to Branford's output is clear - I like some things, dislike others, and will never sound like any of it - my relationship to Paul Bley is tormented and Oedipal. After gorging myself on his records in high school, I turned against him and stopped listening for many years. Then, in 2002 in Spain, I saw Bley and Lee Konitz give a duo concert. The duo was ok, but when they each played solo it was really great. The highlight was Bley's version of "Confirmation," which gave me another sleepless night. I thought I was getting some shit together, but Paul Bley could still cut me into pieces, no question.

Bley brags endlessly about never practicing or rehearsing, and unfortunately many of his records show it. However, his left hand, which used to be of normal competence, has grown by leaps and bounds since about 1990. I talked to him about it a little bit in Spain, and he said that he had began showing his left hand "compassion" (beautiful word) by making it always start every performance for several minutes. It was true: the duo gig began with just left hand. I bought Sankt Gerold to check his development futher, and was amazed at how great an album it was. Certainly his left hand is totally throwing down the heavy by this point. (Try the fast solo piece, track six.)

Sankt Gerold is free music. There are no heads or forms. They just stop and start. Unlike the "energy" free music that features on Thurston Moore's list, this is free music that explores harmony as much as anything else. Bley is one of the true original architects of this kind of "deep listening free music." (His trio records from the sixties are a crucial body of music that is underrated by the jazz world overall.) Evan Parker and Barre Phillips are Bley's children in this way, and they are on top of their game to play with the master on Sankt Gerold. Parker has a wonderful sonority, and Phillips has huge ears. (Those ears are a big asset on what is probably the best Ornette Coleman record of the 1990's, the soundtrack to Naked Lunch, which has a couple trio pieces with Ornette, Phillips, and Denardo Coleman.)

For all his faults, which are numerous, Bley can immediately make interesting music out of anything, anywhere, anytime. On the excerpt I posted, track one, he uses "extended piano technique" like a master. Does Bley need to think much about playing the piano strings like a muted harp? I highly doubt it. He just reaches in and is immediately burning.

"Deep listening free music" is fraught with danger. One thing that can sink the music like a stone is when everybody imitates each other. On this bonus excerpt from track five, Parker, Bley, and Phillips are on the line: it is almost too "together." Nonetheless, since these are heavyweights of free music, it remains delicious, not didactic.

Download Variation_5_excerpt.mp3

One of the many remarkable statistics concerning Paul Bley is the list of saxophone players he has played with: Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, John Gilmore, Albert Ayler, and Evan Parker. Surely no other musician can offer up a similar list. Bley's autobiography, Stopping Time, is highly recommended, although undoubtedly full of lies.

[AndrewHill]

Not offering anything new, but some of my favorites are:

As leader:

Ramblin'

Closer

Barrage

As Sideman:

Fusion/Thesis

Essence

Free Fall

[B. Goren.]

Notes on Ornette is one of my favorites:

Edited July 24, 2008 by B. Goren.

[jlhoots]

Mario Pavone: Trio Arc (with Bley & Matt Wilson) on Playscape is really good.

[clifford_thornton]

I'd be into hearing that one, though I've never been a follower of Matt Wilson's work.

[king ubu]

I'd be into hearing that one, though I've never been a follower of Matt Wilson's work.

Wilson is good enough - Dewey Redman is standout on his first release:

I also have Wake Up (To What's Happening) - not bad either.

That Pavone trio disc could be good then... Pavone I mostly know from his (fine) work with Thomas Chapin's great trio.

[jlhoots]

I'd be into hearing that one, though I've never been a follower of Matt Wilson's work.

Wilson is good enough - Dewey Redman is standout on his first release:

I also have Wake Up (To What's Happening) - not bad either.

That Pavone trio disc could be good then... Pavone I mostly know from his (fine) work with Thomas Chapin's great trio.

Pavone has some other fine CDs on Playscape - Orange, Deez to Blues, Boom

Edited July 28, 2008 by jlhoots

[Bright Moments]

late again to the party but wanted to put my 2 cents in for this one with sonny greenwich -

[Rooster_Ties]

On ‎7‎/‎24‎/‎2008 at 2:24 PM, B. Goren. said:

Notes on Ornette is one of my favorites:

Note to self to seek this one out (for myself) one of these days.

Like the OP who started this thread over a dozen years ago, Paul Bley is a guy I've known about forever, but have scarcely ever actually hear anything by (or with).  Eons ago I had a fairly bad bootleg recording or two of Ornette live with Bley circa 1958 (iirc) -- but that may be the only thing I've ever heard by him.

Enjoying his disc of Ornette covers, though, as I'm typing this -- the whole thing being on YouTube.

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Note to self to seek this one out (for myself) one of these days.

Like the OP who started this thread over a dozen years ago, Paul Bley is a guy I've known about forever, but have scarcely ever actually hear anything by (or with).  Eons ago I had a fairly bad bootleg recording or two of Ornette live with Bley circa 1958 (iirc) -- but that may be the only thing I've ever heard by him.

Enjoying his disc of Ornette covers, though, as I'm typing this -- the whole thing being on YouTube.

I highly recommend watching the Bley section of the film "Imagine the Sound" which you can see on iTunes.  The rest of the film (Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor  and Bill Dixon) is awfully good too. 

[Holy Ghost]

Paul Bley is sick. From ESP to ECM, I've never grown tired of him.

[clifford_thornton]

^ same.

The pre-ESP stuff, on Savoy, GNP, Mercury, and Debut, is also quite fine. Actually had that GNP on last night and it holds up quite well. I think the Savoy is where he really started stretching his legs, at least on record.

[Holy Ghost]

11 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

^ same.

The pre-ESP stuff, on Savoy, GNP, Mercury, and Debut, is also quite fine. Actually had that GNP on last night and it holds up quite well. I think the Savoy is where he really started stretching his legs, at least on record.

Yup, the Savoy is dope.

 

[Chuck Nessa]

Paul was an interesting couple of people.

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Paul was an interesting couple of people.

Interesting. Don't know him, what do you mean?

[Simon8]

Bley never fails to surprise/entertain/move/thrill me. Useless to rewrite history of course, but I'd be curious to see how his impact/image would've been if, say, his 60's output had been made under one label ("Paul Bley, a Blue Note artist!")