Carla Bley

After years spent emphasizing her compositions and bandleading abilities, in the late '80s, Carla Bley finally started featuring her own piano playing to a much greater degree. A melodic but explorative player, Bley (whose use of space sometimes recalls Thelonious Monk) interacts closely with the electric bass of Steve Swallow on this excellent duet session, performing six of her originals and two of Swallow's. ~Scott Yanow, rovi

Carla Bley & Michael Mantler - The Watt Works Family Album (1989) {ECM Records WATT/22 rec 1973-1989}
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© 1989 ECM Records / Watt Works | WATT/22 / 841 478-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Experimental Jazz / Progressive Jazz

When Michael Mantle and Carla Bley started WATT in 1974 as an outle for their own music, they couldn't have imagined that this effort, which began as an impulsive, radical solution to the music industry's lack of interest in young composers, would not only remain necessary 15 years later, but that it would still work.

Composer and pianist Carla Bley has been very consistent, if not exactly prolific, for most of her 40 years in jazz. When she and bassist/life partner Steve Swallow hired British saxophonist Andy Sheppard – then one of his country's young lions as both a composer and as a reedman – in 1989, they hired him on and he's been with the group ever since. The recorded evidence was heard on Sheppard's first appearance with Bley on the utterly beguiling Fleur Carnivore, and later on the fine trio recording Songs with Legs in 1995. Drummer Billy Drummond joined the unit as a permanent member in the early part of this century, and on 2004's Lost Chords debut, locked in with a unit that seemed to be evenly weighted all around.

Carla Bley - The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church (1996) {ECM–Watt WATT/27}
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© 1996 Watt Works / ECM Records | WATT/27 / 78118-23127-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Modern Jazz / Experimental Big Band

Recorded live during an Italian jazz festival, The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church is a perfect showcase for the forward-thinking compositions and arrangements of Carla Bley. Starting with "Setting Calvin's Waltz," a gentle, reverent blues that blooms into a nearly 24 minute workout for the whole ensemble, the album displays Bley's spontenaiety, flexibility and lightness, unique to her and few others within the modern large group format. It helps that this material is highly sympathetic to her style – as Bley's band splits apart into sections and solos, then reforms again, echoes can be heard of gospel music, with its powerful choirs counterpointed by the clarity of a single voice. Not quite as experimental as her earlier compositions, this album manages, regardless to be among her best work in the '90s.

Carla Bley - The Very Big Carla Bley Band (1991) {ECM Records 847 942-2}
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© 1991 WATT Works / ECM Records | WATT/23 / 847 942-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Experimental Big Band / Progressive Jazz / Piano

Five striking Bley compositions are featured here, including two extended works, 'United States' and 'All Fall Down'. The lasting impression is one of unusual voicings, adventurous soloists, unconventional arranging touches, and dissonant shadings. 'Delightfully quirky, chaotically dynamic, delicately impressionistic, buoyantly upbeat, and brashly bold.' - Downbeat

Composer and pianist Carla Bley has been very consistent, if not exactly prolific, for most of her 40 years in jazz. When she and bassist/life partner Steve Swallow hired British saxophonist Andy Sheppard – then one of his country's young lions as both a composer and as a reedman – in 1989, they hired him on and he's been with the group ever since. ~ AllMusic

Carla Bley - 4x4 (2000) {ECM Records WATT/30}
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© 2000 ECM Records / Watt Works | WATT/30 / 159 547-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Experimental Big Band / Contemporary Jazz

“4x4” is the title of Carla Bley’s new album and also the name of her new octet. It’s a stripped-down version of her Big Band. Carla’s cast off three trumpets, three trombones and three reeds, but there is no loss of power. On the contrary, like other great jazz composers before her, Bley knows how to maximise her resources. This is a very big-sounding octet and the new format allows for increased manoeuvrability, as well as extended features for a stellar cast.