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Biography
Infobox musical artist| name = Paul Bley| image = Paul_Bley.jpg| caption = Paul Bley recording solo piano in 2006| image_size = 288 x 384| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist| birth_name = Paul Bley| alias =| birth_date = birth date and age|1932|11|10| death_date =| origin = Montreal , Canada | instrument = Piano | genre = Free jazz Avant-garde jazz Post bop | occupation =| years_active =| label =| associated_acts = Charlie Parker , Lester Young , Charles Mingus , Sonny Rollins , Ornette Coleman , Jimmy Giuffre , Steve Swallow , Chet Baker , Gary Peacock , Paul Motian , Annette Peacock , Charlie Haden , John Scofield , Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen , Bill Frisell , John Abercrombie (guitarist)|John Abercrombie , Michael Urbaniak , Pat Metheny , Jaco Pastorius | website =| current_members =| past_members =| notable_instruments = piano, Moog synthesizer, ARP synthesizer, Fender Rhodes Paul Bley , Order of Canada|CM (born November 10, 1932) is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.
Biography
Paul Bley was born in Montreal , Canada , his parents were Betty Marcovitch, an immigrant from Romanians|Romania , and Joe Bley, owner of an embroidery factory.cite book|last=Paul Bley with David Lee|title=Stopping Time: Paul Bley and the Transformation of Jazz|publisher= Véhicule Press |year=1999|month=January|page = 10|isbn=1-55065-111-0 http://jazz.com/encyclopedia/bley-paul Bley Paul biography www.jazz.com Bley has been a long-time resident of the United States . His music characteristically features strong senses both of melodic voicing and space.
In the 1950s he founded the Jazz Workshop in Montreal, performing and recording there with Charlie Parker . He also performed with Lester Young and Ben Webster at that time.
In 1953 he conducted for Charles Mingus on the Charles Mingus and his Orchestra album and the same year Mingus produced the Introducing Paul Bley album with Mingus and Art Blakey . In 1960 Bley recorded on piano with the Charles Mingus Group.
In 1958, he hired Don Cherry (jazz)|Don Cherry , Ornette Coleman , Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins to play at the Hillcrest Club in California .
In the early 1960s he was part of the Jimmy Giuffre 3, a clarinet, piano and bass trio with bassist Steve Swallow . The quiet understatement of this music makes it possible to overlook its degree of innovation. As well as a repertoire introducing compositions by his ex-wife Carla Bley , the group's music moved towards free improvisation based on close empathy.
During the same period Bley was touring and recording with Sonny Rollins , which culminated with the RCA Victor album, Sonny Meets Hawk! with Coleman Hawkins .
In 1964 Bley was instrumental in the formation of the Jazz Composers Guild - a co-operative organisation which brought together many free jazz musicians in New York : Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, his ex-wife Carla Bley , Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, among others. The guild organized weekly concerts and created a forum for the "jazz revolution" of 1964.Paul Bley with David Lee: Stopping Time. Paul Bley and the Transformation of Jazz. Vehicule Press 1999.
Bley had long been interested in expanding the palette of his music using unconventional sounds (such as playing directly on the piano-strings). It was therefore consistent that he took an interest in new electronic possibilities appearing in the late 1960s. He pioneered the use of Moog synthesizer s, performing with them before a live audience for the first time at Avery Fisher Hall|Philharmonic Hall in New York City on Dec. 26, 1969.Stopping Time
This led into a period of the "Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show", a group where he worked with songwriter Annette Peacock .
Subsequently Bley returned to a predominant focus on the piano itself.
During the 1970s, Bley, in partnership with videographer Carol Goss, was responsible for an important multi-media initiative, Improvising Artists which issued LPs and videos documenting the solo piano recordings by Sun Ra and other works of free jazz with Jimmy Giuffre , Lee Konitz , Gary Peacock , Lester Bowie , John Gilmore (musician)|John Gilmore , Jaco Pastorius , Pat Metheny , Steve Lacy and others.
Bley and Goss are credited in a Billboard Magazine cover story with the first " music video " as a result of the recorded and live performance collaborations they produced with jazz musicians and video artists.
Bley was featured in the 1981 documentary film Imagine the Sound , in which he performs and discusses the history of his music.
Bley has continued to tour internationally and record prodigiously, with well over a hundred CDs released. In 1999 his autobiography, Stopping Time: Paul Bley and the Transformation of Jazz was published. In 2003 Time Will Tell: Conversations with Paul Bley was published. And in 2004 Paul Bley: la logica del caso (Paul Bley: The Logic of Chance) was published in Italian. In 2008, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada .cite web|url= http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp? lang=e& DocID=5447|title=Governor General Announces New Appointments to the Order of Canada
Discography
Expand section|date=December 2009
As leader
; America Records
1971: The Fabulous Paul Bley Quintet (Live recording from Hillcrest Club, Los Angeles 1958)
http://www.jazzinstitut.de/Jazzindex/index-bley-paul.htm biography (in German and English) and bibliography (in English)
Persondata | NAME =Bley, Paul | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =November 10, 1932 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Bley, Paul Category:Free jazz pianists Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Canadian people of Romanian descent Category:Post-bop pianists Category:Free jazz keyboardists Category:Post-bop keyboardists Category:Canadian jazz musicians Category:Savoy Records artists Category:Columbia Records artists Category:BYG Actuel artists Category:SteepleChase Records artists Category:Freedom Records artists Category:1932 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Montreal Category:ECM artists Category:Milestone Records artists Category:Avant-garde jazz keyboardists Category:Avant-garde jazz pianists Category:ESP-Disk artists
