Paul Bley Nothing to Declare

Paul Ellis is one of the two brains behind Dweller at the Threshold. It’s immediately clear that this is a professional musician who knows what he’s doing from the way the fragments are glued together, smoothly leaving no trace. The sounds he uses are perfect for the atmosphere he has in mind - and there are a lot of atmospheres on this album. The title is divided into three parts, all clocking in at around 15 minutes. The way the three parts float together is very listener-friendly; no fear for disturbance of a break in the special atmosphere Ellis has left you in. Whatever you want, it’s here; heavenly choirs, broad outstretched symphonic planes, cosmic fascination and killer sequencers. At times Jarre-esque, but with more effects, at others surging Dweller-patterns full of wondrous complexity…

Even though Desmond was kidding when he described himself as the world's slowest alto player, this record bears out the kernel of truth within the jest. Here, Desmond set out to make a record of love songs and torch ballads, so the tempos are very slow to medium, the mood is of wistful relaxation, and the spaces between the notes grow longer. At first glance, Desmond may seem only peripherally involved with the music-making, keeping emotion at a cool, intellectual arms' length, yet his exceptionally pure tone and ruminative moods wear very well over the long haul. Again, Jim Hall is his commiserator and partner, and the guitarist gets practically as much space to unwind as the headliner; the solo on "Angel Eyes" is an encyclopedia of magnificent chording and single-string eloquence…

Paul Bley - Paul Bley & Scorpio (1973) {Milestone MCD9046 rel 2006}
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© 1973, 2006 Milestone Records / Fantasy / Universe Italy | MCD 9046
Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Keyboards

The Milestone label released several of this artist's better records in which he flirts, indeed gets seriously involved, with electronic keyboards. This one is the album where he goes head over heels for the electric piano, and fans of jazz with that Fender Rhodes sound are going to want it, even if the photographer decided to make the normally dignified pianist look like Pinnochio in both of the shots. Paul Bley sits at a bank of keyboards here, giving forth a passage on acoustic, then some chirping synthesizer, then some electric piano, and so forth.

Having worked early on with everyone from Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus to Chet Baker and Jimmy Giuffre, Canadian pianist Paul Bley created a solid jazz base for his own distinctly sparse and plaintive style. In the '60s he gravitated toward free jazz, but with less of the freneticism of a Cecil Taylor and more as a melancholic minimalist who would leave his mark on such introverted tinklers as Keith Jarrett. Since the dawn of the '70s, Bley has elaborated on his brand of chamber jazz via a slew of independent jazz labels, including Steeplechase, Soul Note, Owl, and hatART. But it's on the German ECM label where he has scored some of his most impressive triumphs; this 1986 session ranks high among his many solo and group outings for the label.

Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Swallow - The Life of a Trio, Saturday (1989) {Owl–Universal 0147312 rel 2001}
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© 1989, 2001 Owl Records / Universal Music | 0147312
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Chamber Jazz

The venerable Universal Music label has re-released the two Life of a Trio nights – originally issued in the early '90s on CD by France's Owl label – that featured the 1989 reunion of the 1961-1962 Jimmy Giuffre 3 of Giuffre on reeds, pianist Paul Bley, and bassist Steve Swallow. The first evening, Saturday, December 16, began with a solo clarinet improvisation by Giuffre, followed by "Black Ivory," a duet between Giuffre and Bley, and then "Owl Eyes," by solo Bley, with the tension heating up as Bley duets with Swallow on "Endless Melody," until they come together all too briefly (5:22) for "Turns."