"The Carla Bley Songbook" this week on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

http://www.monastery.nl/bulletin/asexpol/171bley.jpg

Carla Bley is renowned today for her big-band writing and its wide-ranging use of musical and emotional elements, but it was small-group recordings of her work in the 1960s by musicians such as Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, George Russell, and her husband Paul Bley that introduced her to the jazz world. In her teens Bley abandoned home, religion, and school, eventually making her way to New York City, where she worked as a hatcheck and cigarette girl in jazz clubs such as Basin Street and Birdland. She also met Paul Bley, a young up-and-coming Canadian jazz pianist she’d end up marrying and moving with to Los Angeles. There the Bleys became a part of the late-1950s avant-jazz scene, highlighted by Paul Bley’s stint with Ornette Coleman’s quartet—and Carla Bley, taking in all of the adventurous sounds that she heard, began to compose, beginning the evolution of a style that one writer would later describe as “ hyper-modern jazz…asymmetrical compositional structures that subvert jazz formula to wonderful effect, with unpredictable melodies that are often as catchy as they are obscure.” “I was lucky,” Bley has said. “People started playing my music as soon as I began to write it. I don’t know why. It just happened.”

The Carla Bley Songbook airs this evening at 11:05 p.m. EST on WFIU and at 9 p.m. Central Time on WNIN-Evansville. It will also air at 10 p.m. EST Sunday evening on Michigan's Blue Lake Public Radio. For additional broadcast times around the country, see the "Carriage" section on the Night Lights links page. (Not positive, but I think we're debuting tonight on Oklahoma Public Radio.)

The Carla Bley Songbook will be posted for online listening by Monday morning in the Night Lights archives.

Edited October 20, 2023 by ghost of miles

[Joe G]

[ghost of miles]

Thanks for the thumbs-up, Joe. Forgot to mention that it's partly in honor of Carla's 70th birthday (tomorrow, May 11).

[GregK]

I'll have to remember to check this out. I know very little of her music outside of the Giuffre records from the 60s and her ECM rarum. Nice picture of her, too!

[Guest Bill Barton]

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 70!

This looks like a great show, David.

I'm planning a somewhat less in-depth salute tonight on Bright Moments.

[ghost of miles]

Thanks again for the interest, all. The Carla Bley Songbook is now archived.

Edited March 7, 2009 by ghost of miles

[clifford_thornton]

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 70!

No shit! What a fox...

Always one of my favorite composers in the music.

[Guest Bill Barton]

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 70!

No shit! What a fox...

Always one of my favorite composers in the music.

Not to mention having one of the most hilarious websites of all time. I try to visit Karen at least once a month. R.I.P. Arnold the Cat.

Edited May 13, 2008 by Bill Barton

[Lazaro Vega]

Hey, just printed out the lead sheet to "Ida Lupino" and will undertake to play it on the trumpet. Thanks for the link.

[Guest Bill Barton]

You're welcome, Lazaro.

Watch out for the showers... And I'd be extra careful in the cafeteria too.

[alocispepraluger102]

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she's 70!

This looks like a great show, David.

I'm planning a somewhat less in-depth salute tonight on Bright Moments.

bright gave a most redoutable effort.

[Chuck Nessa]

How about a Weill / Brecht show to discover her roots.

[Guest Bill Barton]

How about a Weill / Brecht show to discover her roots.

That's a great idea!

[Lazaro Vega]

Wazz'at Bart?

Heard this program on the radio as we drove home from the Police and Elvis Costello concert -- joined right in the middle of a Tony Williams and Lifetime recording.

Muhal playing "King Korn" on Barry Altschul's album is a classic.

Edited May 15, 2008 by Lazaro Vega

[BillF]

Now listening. Interesting music which I'm pleased to hear for the first time - as so often with Night Lights.

[ghost of miles]

We're re-airing The Carla Bley Songbook this week, but it's already archived for online listening.

[ghost of miles]

Up in memory:

The Carla Bley Songbook