Paul Bley

[Rooster_Ties]

8 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Most of the IAI records have short playing times.

 Oh, man, are they ever!

[Guy Berger]

The ECM archival release When Will the Blues Leave (w/Peacock and Motian) is really excellent - highly recommended.

[soulpope]

15 minutes ago, Guy Berger said:

The ECM archival release When Will the Blues Leave (w/Peacock and Motian) is really excellent - highly recommended.

Yep ....

[Late]

I love this album. But did it inadvertently set the mold for all future ECM piano trios?

[Chuck Nessa]

Sorry if I asked this 7 pages back, have any members had personal interchange with Paul? He was a fascinating character.

[mjazzg]

8 hours ago, Late said:

I love this album. But did it inadvertently set the mold for all future ECM piano trios?

My favourite Bley. I don't hear it's influence so strongly across other ECM piano trios, and I have a good few of them. 

I'd say Jan Johanson had a bigger influence.

[AllenLowe]

10 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Sorry if I asked this 7 pages back, have any members had personal interchange with Paul? He was a fascinating character.

Paul and I were friendly acquaintances, he used to call me 3 or 4 times a year to talk. I loved the guy; he was a bit of a know-it-all, but he really did know it all. I've read both bios. I was most impressed by the fact that at certain key points of his career he took the path least likely to lead to work and money, but succeeded each time. He also told me some funny stories about working with Hawk and Rollins, that Sonny was very consciously trying to lose Hawkins, who asked Bley, on occasion, to cue him in for his solo.

Edited December 22, 2022 by AllenLowe

[JSngry]

21 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

 I've read both bios. 

I only know of the autobiography. What's the other one, I'd like to read it.

[T.D.]

15 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I only know of the autobiography. What's the other one, I'd like to read it.

There's a book of interviews (probably difficult to find)

and what looks to be a biography

[JSngry]

How are those?

[T.D.]

7 minutes ago, JSngry said:

How are those?

Can't say.

The Meehan is on my "to read" list but I can't find a copy. Autographed copy @$100 offered on Improvising Artists website, but I suspect the page/site is not active.

I considered the Cappeletti, but it's really short and got a couple of s**t reviews on Amazon (a "Euro academic" tag discouraged me), so I decided not to spend $.

Edited December 22, 2022 by T.D.

[JSngry]

Ah, I see. Too bad on both counts.

[gvopedz]

I read the autobiography and the Meehan book many years ago, and I remember the Meehan book seemed to repeat some parts of the autobiography.  But if you are a fan of Bley, go ahead and read the Meehan book  I have not read the Cappelleti book, but I will if I find it in a library.  I would pay no attention to "s**t reviews on Amazon".

[T.D.]

28 minutes ago, gvopedz said:

I read the autobiography and the Meehan book many years ago, and I remember the Meehan book seemed to repeat some parts of the autobiography.  But if you are a fan of Bley, go ahead and read the Meehan book  I have not read the Cappelleti book, but I will if I find it in a library.  I would pay no attention to "s**t reviews on Amazon".

Agree with the underlined. I searched interlibrary loan in vain for the Cappelletti book, but there are other jazz books I'd prefer to purchase. I don't pay much attention to Amazon reviews, but have limited appetite for "Euro academic" material.

[AllenLowe]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

I only know of the autobiography. What's the other one, I'd like to read it.

In my current cognitively-challenged state, it is possible that I was actually remembering reading the one autobiography twice.

[clifford_thornton]

15 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Sorry if I asked this 7 pages back, have any members had personal interchange with Paul? He was a fascinating character.

No, I wish I had. Saw him perform but never got the chance to talk to him.

In the last 15 years I've really come around on the electronic stuff. Had it before just for "completism" but now I quite like it. Sometimes you have to grow into something that was done several years before you were born.

[colinmce]

10 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

No, I wish I had. Saw him perform but never got the chance to talk to him.

In the last 15 years I've really come around on the electronic stuff. Had it before just for "completism" but now I quite like it. Sometimes you have to grow into something that was done several years before you were born.

I also just came into an appreciation of this stuff in the last year. Maybe came from taking a very dedicated deep dive into his 60s acoustic music in a way that I never had before.

[JSngry]

I've learned to just trust the guy's music, period.

[AllenLowe]

His widow Carol has called me a few times for some remastering advice for his old label (was it Improvising Artists?). She lives up in Cherry Valley New York near the Baseball Hall of Fame.

[T.D.]

13 minutes ago, AllenLowe said:

His widow Carol has called me a few times for some remastering advice for his old label (was it Improvising Artists?). She lives up in Cherry Valley New York near the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Yes, the label is Improvising Artists.

Mentioned above in thread that I ordered the autobiography Stopping Time through interlibrary loan, and the copy I got (only one available) came from the Cherry Valley Library. Found that surprising (it's a really small town) until I finished the book (C. V. was mentioned).

I wondered whether any of the family still lived there. I visited C. V. a couple of times years ago, but had no idea of the Bley connection.

[LWayne]

20 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

Sorry if I asked this 7 pages back, have any members had personal interchange with Paul? He was a fascinating character.

My wife and I were at Birdland years back listening to the Paul Bley Trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian. We were sitting at a table to the side of the piano with Frank Kimbrough who was a friend of ours and Bley as well. Paul cut an imposing figure on stage, I did not appreciate how tall he was until seeing him live, and he also sat on top of a thick yellow pages book to boost his stature as well.

Right as the first song begins, Bley is clearly in discomfort. He repeatedly clears his throat. This persists until the next song when it is obvious that he is feeling parched and reaches down to my petite wife sitting closest to him and asks for water. My wife is intimidated by his presence and horrified that she had already taken a sip of water. She looks at Frank and asks "What do I do?". Frank, who is always the coolest cat in the room, simply responds in his typical matter-of-fact manner, "Hey, if he wants your water, give him you water". 

I will always remember the terrified look on my wife's face as she hands him her glass. Both because of his imposing presence and her reluctance to give him a glass that she had already had been drinking from.

Funny moment for me.

LWayne

 

[JSngry]

NP: The Everthirsty Paul Bley (Vol. 2)

The Perpetually Parched Piano of Paul Bley

[Simon8]

Happened upon this Greek (!) documentary where Bley tells his story (notably his adoption story and encounters with Charlie Parker, Ornette, Mingus, etc.) while walking around Montréal: 

Πώλ Μπλαίη - Paul Bley "Οι μουσικοί του Κόσμου" Αφιέρωμα (1932-2016) - YouTube

[Late]

On 12/22/2022 at 5:31 AM, mjazzg said:

I'd say Jan Johanson had a bigger influence.

Interesting, especially as Johansson died just as ECM became a label. I admit to not knowing his work.

[Daniel A]

I think there's a lot more to Johansson than the somewhat sombre album of Swedish traditional songs that is the main reason he's still remembered in Sweden. He did work for orchestras and larger bands, wrote film music and so on. Whether that is ECM-ish or not I'll leave to others, but I didn't think so.

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by Daniel A