Paul Bley

[JSngry]

3 hours ago, paul secor said:

Some interesting stuff, but I felt that the critic who did a lot of the commentary overestimated Mr. Bley's importance to some degree.

I dunno man, you think you get Keith Jarrett w/o Paul Bley first? The longer I listen, the less I think you do...and I think that Bley swings too. Consistently!

Now, is Keith Jarrett important? Not to you or me personally, but to the world beyond that? Judging my the fees he gets, at least somewhat.

Paul Bley is the kind of guy it's real easy to sleep on until you get woke to him. And then...

[Guy Berger]

16 hours ago, Simon8 said:

On a unrelated note, always liked that picture of Bley in discussion Bill Evans and Ron Carter. Caption suggestions?

"Remember when you guys still made non-boring music?  That was a really long time ago"

Edited March 30, 2018 by Guy Berger

[xybert]

Looking at Bley's discography on Wikipedia, does anyone know why he appears to have not recorded anything between 1977 and 1983? May be no notable reason, but he recorded fairly regularly before and after that break. Just curious. Cheers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bley_discography

 

[clifford_thornton]

It's probably in the autobiography and my copy is in storage. Was he teaching then, perhaps?

[xybert]

Cheers, i've been wanting to read his book for a while, will track down a copy.

 

[Simon Weil]

18 hours ago, xybert said:

Looking at Bley's discography on Wikipedia, does anyone know why he appears to have not recorded anything between 1977 and 1983? May be no notable reason, but he recorded fairly regularly before and after that break. Just curious. Cheers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bley_discography

 

Bley says he did a recording with Jimmy Guiffre, Lee Konitz and Bill Connors in 1978, which was his "last audio recording for IAI" - the record label he ran with Carol Goss. After that he stopped running the label, he and Goss got married and moved to upstate New York (80s). He appears in Imagine the Sound (1981). [Info from Stopping Time p129-35]

[JohnS]

On 3/30/2018 at 5:07 AM, clifford_thornton said:

It's probably in the autobiography and my copy is in storage. Was he teaching then, perhaps?

Are we talking about "Stopping Time"?   I no longer have my copy but I found it interesting as a fan of Mr Bley but overall disappointing.  Little more than a collection of reminiscences.   

[sidewinder]

Out of curiosity just checked that Jazz Centre Society booklet from 1971 and the gig at Hampstead Country Club in London had Annette Peacock on vocals/electric piano, Daryll Runswick on bass and Robert Wyatt on drums. Tunes performed included ‘Mr Joy’ and ‘Touching’ and this was the first of a number of appearances for the JCS over the following years I believe. Review was by Richard Williams.

[mjazzg]

35 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

Out of curiosity just checked that Jazz Centre Society booklet from 1971 and the gig at Hampstead Country Club in London had Annette Peacock on vocals/electric piano, Daryll Runswick on bass and Robert Wyatt on drums. Tunes performed included ‘Mr Joy’ and ‘Touching’ and this was the first of a number of appearances for the JCS over the following years I believe. Review was by Richard Williams.

It's line ups like that that make me wish I was ten years older!

[Simon Weil]

3 hours ago, JohnS said:

Are we talking about "Stopping Time"?   I no longer have my copy but I found it interesting as a fan of Mr Bley but overall disappointing.  Little more than a collection of reminiscences.   

The full title of the book is Stopping Time, Paul Bley and the Transformation of Jazz. In those terms it is disappointing, in that it sets you up to expect some sort of narrative explaining how Jazz changed into what it is now (and I was disappointed by that). Or at least in 1999, when the book was published. But it doesn't deliver that - rather just being Bley's personal story. The likelihood is the publisher thought up the title (Or anyway the second part - it wouldn't be how an author described himself, rather an outsider's point of view) and stuck him with it in order to enhance sales.

I  actually think the book stands up quite well compared to over-written, over-dramatized Jazz (or music) (auto)-biogs elsewhere. It has more real stuff, somehow. There's quite a lot in it - because Bley did and experienced a lot. Its real value is as testimony  - rather than as analysis. It is just him writing about his life, rather than some grandiose narrative explaining how Jazz got to where it is.

Edited March 31, 2018 by Simon Weil

[JSngry]

Still not time to stop listening to Paul Bley!

[mjazzg]

Never time not to listen to 'Ballads'

[Guy Berger]

On 3/29/2018 at 4:57 PM, Guy Berger said:

"Remember when you guys still made non-boring music?  That was a really long time ago"

Tough but fair!

Really digging into Not One, Not Two this week.  There are a lot of ECM piano trios that sound like this and make me doze off, but these guys are so locked in, it’s amazing.

LOL!!!!!, https://ethaniverson.com/service-for-paul-bley/ 

 

Quote

In 2000 Keith and ECM released Inside Out, an album of free improvisations with Peacock and DeJohnette. It was kind of a political statement: In the liner notes Keith complains about Wynton Marsalis and Ken Burns not understanding free jazz.
 

One of the few times I met Paul Bley, he fixed me with his eyes. “Did you hear Keith Jarrett’s latest, Inside Out? In it, he proves that he can, at last, play exactly the way I did in 1965.”

 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Guy Berger

[clifford_thornton]

LMAO!!! Yeah, I had a copy of Life Between The Exit Signs but did not keep it because a) Jarrett and b) I have enough Paul Bley records to listen to and enjoy.

[colinmce]

36 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

LMAO!!! Yeah, I had a copy of Life Between The Exit Signs but did not keep it because a) Jarrett and b) I have enough Paul Bley records to listen to and enjoy.

I keep it filed because I don't feel like I have enough Paul Bley records to listen to and enjoy haha. Two sides of a coin.

Does this mean you don't have any KJ?

[clifford_thornton]

Only Jarrett I have is on Gnu High and Conception Vessel.

[JSngry]

I've kept any Jarrett records that have Dewey, which is many. And a few with Garbarek. And the first 2 or 3 trio records because some of the songs were good.

But for sure, Paul Bley, of course, it's not even close.

[Rooster_Ties]

1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

Only Jarrett I have is on Gnu High and Conception Vessel.

Other than plenty with Miles, the only Jarrett I have is Gnu High (unless I’m forgetting something else).

edit: I also have him on Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (quite a monster work, btw) — and about a year ago I found a cheap $5 CD of the ubiquitous Köln Concert.

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Rooster_Ties

[T.D.]

39 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Other than plenty with Miles, the only Jarrett I have is Gnu High (unless I’m forgetting something else).

edit: I also have him on Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (quite a monster work, btw) — and about a year ago I found a cheap $5 CD of the ubiquitous Köln Concert.

 

 for Gnu High. As leader, I still have 3 of Jarrett's old Euro Quartet albums: Belonging, My Song and Personal Mountains.  Don't listen that often, but they've have survived many culls. Once had both Köln Concert and La Scala, enjoyed them at first but it faded, eventually culled. Considered some Standards Trio albums but never spent the money.

The Lou Harrison looks interesting. I'd also like to hear Jarrett's recording of the Hovhaness Piano Concerto. Never bought his recordings of "standard" classical repertoire (Bach, DSCH, Handel, Mozart) because there are so many good competing versions.

Back on topic, my collection of Paul Bley recordings is slowly growing, while the Jarrett collection is static.

[clifford_thornton]

1 hour ago, Rooster_Ties said:

Other than plenty with Miles, the only Jarrett I have is Gnu High (unless I’m forgetting something else).

edit: I also have him on Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (quite a monster work, btw) — and about a year ago I found a cheap $5 CD of the ubiquitous Köln Concert.

 

oh duh, yes Miles too. Forgot about that.

[Rooster_Ties]

2 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

oh duh, yes Miles too. Forgot about that.

No worries, I usually do too!

[JSngry]

I don't see how one casually tosses aside all that Dewey....

[jlhoots]

6 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I don't see how one casually tosses aside all that Dewey....

Not that you need me to, but I agree.

[clifford_thornton]

I've heard those records and like them (mostly for everyone but KJ -- tho he holds his own) but at the same time I don't feel an aching need to keep them in the library.

[Rooster_Ties]

45 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I don't see how one casually tosses aside all that Dewey....

I’ve got a good smattering of Dewey, but there’s a lot more that I don’t have, than what I do.  I do have everything he did with Ornette (all the major label stuff, at least), and everything with Old and New Dreams — plus a few of his own leader-dates is primarily what all I have — plus that one Anthony Cox date — plus that nice Ethan Iverson date from 1993 too.

I could certainly have more, but I just never felt the need to get it all with him.