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Biography
Infobox musical artist| name = Carla Bley| image = Carla-Bley-supercrop.png| caption =| image_size = 219| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist| birth_name = Carla Borg| alias =| birth_date = Birth date and age|1936|5|11| death_date =| origin = Oakland, California , United States|U.S. | instrument = Piano , Organ (instrument)|Organ | genre = Post bop | occupation = Pianist Organist Bandleader | years_active =| label = WATT/ ECM (record label)|ECM / Universal Music Group|Universal Records | associated_acts = Michael Mantler , Steve Swallow , Paul Bley , Nick Mason , Johnny Griffin , Gary Burton , Jimmy Giuffre , George Russell (composer)|George Russell , Art Farmer | website =| current_members =| past_members =| notable_instruments = Carla Bley , née Borg , (born May 11, 1936) is an United States|American jazz composer , jazz piano|pianist , organist and band leader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill (released as a triple LP set), as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton , Jimmy Giuffre , George Russell (composer)|George Russell , Art Farmer and her ex-husband Paul Bley .
Biography
Bley was born in Oakland, California . Her father, a piano teacher and church choirmaster, encouraged her to sing and to learn to play the piano. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen, Ben Sidran , Talking Jazz: An Illustrated Oral History , Pomegranate Artbooks, 1992 she moved to New York City|New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland (jazz club)|Birdland , where she met jazz pianist Paul Bley, whom she married in 1957.Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz , Paris, 1994 He encouraged her to start composing. The couple later divorced.
A number of musicians began to record her compositions: George Russell (composer)|George Russell recorded "Bent Eagle" on his 1960 release Stratusphunk in 1960; Jimmy Giuffre's recorded "Ictus" on his album Thesis (album)|Thesis ; and Paul Bley's Barrage (Paul Bley album)|Barrage consisted entirely of her compositions.
In 1964 she was involved in organising the Jazz Composers Guild which brought together the most innovative musicians in New York at the time. She then had a personal and professional relationship with Michael Mantler , with whom she had a daughter, Karen Mantler|Karen , now also a musician in her own right.
With Mantler, she co-led the Jazz Composers' Orchestra and started the JCOA record label which issued a number of historic recordings by Clifford Thornton , Don Cherry (jazz)|Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd , as well as her own Masterpiece|magnum opus Escalator Over The Hill and Mantler's '' The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (album)|The Jazz Composer's Orchestra LPs. Bley and Mantler followed with WATT Records , which has issued their recordings exclusively since the early 1970s. Bley and Mantler were pioneers in the development of independent artist-owned record labels and also started the now defunct New Music Distribution Services which specialized in small, independent labels that issued recordings of creative improvised music .
Bley has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Jack Bruce , Robert Wyatt and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason , whose 1981 solo album '' Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports '' was a Carla Bley album in all but name. She arranged and composed music for Charlie Haden 's Liberation Music Orchestra , and wrote A Genuine Tong Funeral for Gary Burton . Her arrangement of the score for Federico Fellini 's 8½ appeared on Hal Willner 's Nino Rota tribute record, Amarcord Nino Rota . She has also contributed to other Hal Willner projects, including the song "Misterioso" for the tribute to Thelonious Monk entitled "That's the Way I Feel Now", which included Johnny Griffin as guest musician on tenor saxophone, and the Willner-directed tribute to Kurt Weill , entitled " Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill|Lost in the Stars ", where she and her band contributed an arrangement of the title track, with Phil Woods as guest musician on alto saxophone. In the late 1980s, she also performed with Anton Fier 's Golden Palominos and played on their 1985 album, Visions of Excess .
Carla Bley has continued to record frequently with her own Big band , which included Blood, Sweat and Tears notable Lew Soloff , and a number of smaller ensembles, notably The Lost Chords. Her current partner, the bassist Steve Swallow ,Bley's MySpace page cites Swallow as her partner. http://www.myspace.com/carlabley has been her closest and most consistent musical associate in recent years and the two have recorded several duet albums. In 1997, a live version of Escalator over the Hill (re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman) was performed for the first time in Cologne , Germany ; in 1998 "Escalator" toured Europe, and another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen , Germany.
In 2005 she arranged the music for and performed on Charlie Haden 's latest Liberation Music Orchestra tour and recording, Not in Our Name (album)|Not in Our Name .
Awards
Bley was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972 for music composition. In 2009, she was awarded the German Jazz Trophy "A Life for Jazz". http://www.ecmrecords.com/News/Diary/258_Carla_Bley_German_Jazz_Trophy.php? cat=& doctype=Diary& we_start=24 German Jazz Trophy for Carla Bley http://www.german-jazz-trophy.de/ www.german-jazz-trophy.de
Discography
As leader
1974: Tropic Appetites
1977: Dinner Music
1978: European Tour 1977
1979: Musique Mecanique
1981: Social Studies (Carla Bley album)|Social Studies
1995: A Very Special Christmas (series)|Jazz to the World & mdash; various artists (performs " Let It Snow& #33; Let It Snow& #33; Let It Snow!|Let It Snow ")
Videography
1983/2003: Live in Montreal (DVD)
Compositions appear on
1960: George Russell (composer)|George Russell - George Russell Sextet at the Five Spot ("Dance Class" and "Beast Blues")
1960: George Russell - Stratusphunk ("Bent Eagle")
1961: George Russell - George Russell Sextet in K.C. ("Rhymes")
1961: Jimmy Giuffre - Fusion (album)|Fusion ("Jesus Maria" and "In the Morning Out There")
1961: Jimmy Guiffre - Thesis (album)|Thesis ("Ictus")
1961: Jimmy Guiffre - Emphasis & Flight 1961 (live recordings of "Jesus Maria" and "Postures")
1975: Paul Bley - Alone, Again ("Olhos de Gato" and "And Now the Queen")
1975: Gary Burton - Dreams So Real (album)|Dreams So Real ("Dreams So Real", "Ictus/Syndrome", "Jesus Maria", "Vox Humana", "Doctor", "Intermission Music")
1989: Jimmy Guiffre - The Life of a Trio: Sunday ("Where Were We? ")
1989: Orchestra Jazz Siciliana - Plays the Music of Carla Bley ("440", "The Lone Arranger", "Dreams So Real", "Baby Baby", "Joyful Noise", "Egyptian", and "Blunt Object")
1991: Paul Bley - Paul Plays Carla ("Vashkar", "Floater", "Seven", "Around Again", "Ida Lupino", "Turns", "And Now the Queen", "Ictus", "Olhos de Gato" and "Donkey")
1991: John Surman - Adventure Playground (album)|Adventure Playground ("Seven")
1992: Paul Bley - Homage to Carla ("Seven", "Closer", "Olhos de Gato", "And Now the Queen", "Vahskar", "Around Again", "Donkey", "King Korn", "Ictus", "Turns" and "Overtoned")
1994: John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin - After the Rain ("Sing Me Softly of the Blues")
2000: Michel Portal - Dockings ("Ida Lupino")
2000: Mark Turner (musician)|Mark Turner - Ballad Session ("Jesus Maria")
2001: Don Preston - Transformation ("Walking Batteriewoman" and "The Donkey")
2007: Eberhard Weber - Stages of a Long Journey ("Syndrome")
2007: Jonas Kullhammar - Andratx ("Ida Lupino")
2008: Guillaume de Chassy - Faraway So Close ("Ida Lupino")
2008: Marcin Wasilewski (pianist)|Marcin Wasilewski - January (album)|January ("King Korn")
2009: Emanuele Arciuli - Gates to Everywhere ("Romantic Notions 1-8")
2010: Cindy Blackman - Another Lifetime ("Vaskar", "Vaskar Reprise" and "Vaskar - The Alternate Dimension Theory")
2010: The Nels Cline Singers - Initiate ("And Now the Queen")
References
Reflist
External links
Official website|1= http://www.wattxtrawatt.com
http://www.ejn.it/mus/c_bley.htm EJN: Carla Bley
http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx? id=2127 Carla Bley in conversation with Frank J. Oteri
http://www.wattxtrawatt.com Watt/XtraWatt music label
Allmusic|class=artist|id=p6131
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php? id=5082 Carla Bley at All About Jazz
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php? id=45732 Carla Bley interview at All About Jazz
Persondata | NAME =Bley, Carla | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =May 11, 1936 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Bley, Carla Category:1936 births Category:Living people Category:Post-bop pianists Category:Post-bop composers Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz organists Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz composers Category:Women composers Category:Female jazz musicians Category:People from Oakland, California Category:ECM artists Category:The Golden Palominos members
