Carla Bley in conversation with Alyn Shipton

[A Lark Ascending]

Due to run live on BBC Radio 3 in a few minutes. Available on the replayer for a week afterwards:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x41z

[BillF]

Thanks for the reminder, Bev! Will be listening.

[A Lark Ascending]

I was a bit befuddled by this - couldn't work out if I had heard it before (they often repeat these programmes). But the mentions of her appearance at the London Jazz Festival in a couple of months would suggest it is new as she is there.

Intrigued by the Christmas disc from which a track was played at the end...though I know that tune from somewhere else, probably one of her tunes in a different title. Can't find mention of it on the web though she does seem to have done some concerts in Germany.

Carla does Santa...who'd have thought it. Actually, given her whacky approach to things, she's a natural for a seasonal disc.

[fent99]

I was a bit befuddled by this - couldn't work out if I had heard it before (they often repeat these programmes). But the mentions of her appearance at the London Jazz Festival in a couple of months would suggest it is new as she is there.

Intrigued by the Christmas disc from which a track was played at the end...though I know that tune from somewhere else, probably one of her tunes in a different title. Can't find mention of it on the web though she does seem to have done some concerts in Germany.

Carla does Santa...who'd have thought it. Actually, given her whacky approach to things, she's a natural for a seasonal disc.

Similar feeling as to the last track. I thought it was one of her compositions for the Jimmy Giuffre 3 Jesus Maria? Haven't had the chance to dig that out yet though

[A Lark Ascending]

I was a bit befuddled by this - couldn't work out if I had heard it before (they often repeat these programmes). But the mentions of her appearance at the London Jazz Festival in a couple of months would suggest it is new as she is there.

Intrigued by the Christmas disc from which a track was played at the end...though I know that tune from somewhere else, probably one of her tunes in a different title. Can't find mention of it on the web though she does seem to have done some concerts in Germany.

Carla does Santa...who'd have thought it. Actually, given her whacky approach to things, she's a natural for a seasonal disc.

Similar feeling as to the last track. I thought it was one of her compositions for the Jimmy Giuffre 3 Jesus Maria? Haven't had the chance to dig that out yet though

I do believe you are right! I can hear the Giuffre version in my head now.

The Xmas album is definitely on the cards with Amazon US having a Nov 3rd date. Found this Googling:

When she's home, Bley dedicates several hours a day to writing. When we spoke, she was working on an arrangement of "Away in a Manger" for a forthcoming European tour (with Swallow and a brass quintet) and a subsequent recording of all Christmas carols. "I decided to write it as a Palestinian piece, because while I know Jesus was a Jew, everybody was sort of mixed up in those days — they were all Palestinian," she explained. "So I changed the melody to a minor key, and I wrote it in groups of five instead of four, and it's like 'Away in a Palestinian Manger,' virtually. Interesting."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...;type=printable

Kooky as ever! Hope that translates into the music.

Nice line-up too: Carla's Christmas Carols features Carla, Steve Swallow on bass, and The Partyka Brass Quintet

Edited September 21, 2009 by Bev Stapleton