great interview, thanks for postingthis is something, re: don cherry on escalator: CB: It was a miracle because he didn’t have any music. And even the words, when he says the syllables again and again and again, those were words from Escalator. Again it was one of the main songs, and he didn’t even know that. Everything was mystical like that with Don. He was from a different planet, definitely, god.
― brimstead, Saturday, 26 December 2020 18:50 (three years ago) link
really getting into Life Goes On now. i think it's just gorgeous.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 14 April 2021 07:09 (two years ago) link
that interview with her posted just upthread is so fun! man what an awesome person she seems like.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 14 April 2021 07:11 (two years ago) link
She’s a treasure.
― In on the killfile (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 14 April 2021 15:43 (two years ago) link
another new interview with TheQuietus up yesterday https://thequietus.com/articles/29717-carla-bley-interview
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Wednesday, 14 April 2021 15:53 (two years ago) link
still listen to her last album a lot, it was quite a timely move releasing Life Goes On just before all the lockdowns started.
― calzino, Wednesday, 14 April 2021 16:07 (two years ago) link
85 today, I think
― Working in the POLL Mine (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 May 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link
this is so cool. courtesy the algorithm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79vIUP78EsE
― budo jeru, Sunday, 25 December 2022 05:11 (one year ago) link
Gary Burton, "Genuine Tong Funeral"
― Poisoned by Johan's pea soup. (Tom D.), Thursday, May 24, 2018 1:28 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink
this is such an amazing record! i love her compositions.
― budo jeru, Sunday, 25 December 2022 05:13 (one year ago) link
another favorite composition, via igor S. one assumes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiydA9t8UZw
― budo jeru, Sunday, 25 December 2022 05:15 (one year ago) link
OMG WHAT AN INTERVIEW! Thanks and Merry Christmas yall!
― dow, Sunday, 25 December 2022 07:38 (one year ago) link
Oof bumping this scared me for a moment.
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 25 December 2022 13:30 (one year ago) link
Ditto.
― Twa pehs an' an ingin ane an' aw (Tom D.), Sunday, 25 December 2022 13:31 (one year ago) link
never revive threads about old people
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Sunday, 25 December 2022 18:33 (one year ago) link
enjoyed this as well
― budo jeru, Sunday, 8 January 2023 15:44 (one year ago) link
oops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKxACz7B0IM
― budo jeru, Sunday, 8 January 2023 15:45 (one year ago) link
oops.📹
― Lord Pickles (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 8 January 2023 16:55 (one year ago) link
kew rhone should be on its way to me courtesy of the Reccommended records sale
― Stevolende, Sunday, 8 January 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
did some looking around and noticed that CB called stravisnky her "favorite composer at this point in my life" in a recent interview with the jazz times. also found this:
the essence of The Rite of Spring seems to be prefigured in its opening bassoon melody – indeed, its first eight unaccompanied notes. More than a hundred years after it was written, that indelible, immediately recognizable phrase is all that’s necessary to evoke a broad canvas of colors, movement, emotions. Which is why so many jazz artists have used it, either as the thematic foundation of a new piece, a symbolic reference, or a fragrant wisp of high culture. Paul Desmond’s “Sacre Blues,” Ornette Coleman’s “Sleep Talk,” Carla Bley’s “And Now the Queen,” and Peter Erskine/Marty Krystall/Buell Neidlinger’s “I Go(rs) Blue(s)” quickly come to mind; the list goes on.
so i don't think i'm imagining it.
― budo jeru, Monday, 9 January 2023 00:23 (one year ago) link
Jon Anderson sings that melody unaccompanied on Yessongs.
― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 9 January 2023 21:04 (one year ago) link
bumping because I just spent way too long trying to make sense of Bley's bizarre prison-themed Web 1.0 (maybe Web 1.5) website at http://www.wattxtrawatt.com/
It's been updated at least since 2016 as there is a bit about putting Donald Trump in jail somewhere in it.
Finally, I discovered that her daughter Karen Mantler rocks the same hairstyle as her she does, perhaps for some kind of Gallagher 2 scenario.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, 13 March 2023 19:56 (one year ago) link
ngl got nervous about this bump given her age. 'escalator over the hill' is an all time great, always loved this write up:
Marcello Carlin, writing for Stylus Magazine, considers the album to be "the greatest record ever made." He said: "No protest, no social commentary. No expression of love, of grief, of hope, of despair. It is literally whatever you want to make of it. It is devoid of every quality which you might assume would qualify it to be the greatest of all records. And yet it is that tabula rasa in its heart, the blank space which may well exist at the very heart of all music, revealing the hard truth that we have to fill in the blanks, we have to interpret what is being played and sung, and our interpretation is the only one which can possibly be valid, as we cannot discern any perspective other than our own.
tropic appetites & dinner music after that...
― maelin, Monday, 13 March 2023 21:01 (one year ago) link
France Musique is reporting on their X (Twitter) that she has passed away, shared by folks like Robert Beatty and Oren Ambarchi, though I can't get a working link since I'm not signed into X on this computer.
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:42 (five months ago) link
Noooooooo
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:43 (five months ago) link
Pianiste, organiste, leader de premier plan et compositrice aux œuvres protéiformes, autant inspirées par le jazz que la musique classique, religieuse et folklorique, la jazzwoman américaine Carla Bley est décédée ce mardi matin. Elle avait 87 ans.https://t.co/jXM5upZGrI— France Musique (@francemusique) October 17, 2023
― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:46 (five months ago) link
wow. a true giant. RIP.
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:48 (five months ago) link
oh shit, one of the greats :(
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:52 (five months ago) link
rip!!!! :(
― ivy., Tuesday, 17 October 2023 17:58 (five months ago) link
Couldn't say it was unexpected, just that her music means so much to me.
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 18:28 (five months ago) link
RIP legend
― J. Sam, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 18:31 (five months ago) link
one of those titanic artists whose music I’ve never been sophisticated enough to appreciate but whose interviews I love reading. and the best hair.
― brimstead, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 18:55 (five months ago) link
sorry if that sounded flippant, I admire her a lot
― brimstead, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 18:56 (five months ago) link
I'm a grunting troglodyte and love loads of her music! Not just Escalator Over The Hill or one of the best ecm albums ever with Haden, Ballad of the Fallen, loads of her late period stuff was great as well.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 19:10 (five months ago) link
You want flippant? I've always meant to listen to more of her albums but the covers were so uniformly terrible that I never took the plunge. I've only heard about half of Escalator Over The Hill and her three most recent ECM releases — Trios, Andando El Tiempo, and Life Goes On. Those last three are all really beautiful, though.
― read-only (unperson), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 20:01 (five months ago) link
she composed the Ida Lupino tribute on Paul Bley's Closer, just one of the most beautiful things ever.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 20:12 (five months ago) link
The Lost Chords one with Paolo Fresu is another beauty.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 20:17 (five months ago) link
RIP Carla. Responsible for so much great, and diverse, music.
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 20:25 (five months ago) link
Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports is one of my favorites albums ever. It's her album all but in name.
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 21:05 (five months ago) link
Really horrible news. R.I.P.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 21:38 (five months ago) link
I think in interviews she said Ellington was a freeriding parasite feeding off Strayhorn's talent. Not something I'd agree with - but still v funny!
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 22:04 (five months ago) link
Which of her other records come closest to Escalator, Tropic Appetites and the Nick Mason album, in terms of being song-based and "rock-friendly"?
― Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 22:09 (five months ago) link
If Marcello still posted here he'd probably have a few answers, but Night-Glo but would probably be among them.
― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 22:16 (five months ago) link
I think it’s mostly Michael Mantler’s album but it think she had something to do with the Edward Gorey tribute The Hapless Child .
― deep wubs and tribral rhythms (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 17 October 2023 23:40 (five months ago) link
"After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen, she moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland."
is this amazing origin story common knowledge?
― matcha man (outdoor_miner), Wednesday, 18 October 2023 00:11 (five months ago) link
her own recordings, her work with mantler, the haden collaborations (& yes ida lupino!) so much great music.
more a mantler joint than strictly bley though she's a big part of it, but maybe SILENCE (though not the biggest fan of it myself tbh)
― no lime tangier, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 08:26 (five months ago) link
RIP. Would also highly recommend A Genuine Tong Funeral by Gary Burton, where Carla wrote all the tunes and plays piano alongside an incredible band. V much a trial run for Escalator.
I saw her live once, playing with Charlie Haden and a late version of the Liberation Music Orchestra during Ornette Coleman's Meltdown Festival in London. It seemed significant that she was the only musician on the night who didn't take an extended solo - a sign of reticence, even then? Or a commitment to thinking always as a composer/arranger first and foremost?
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 08:55 (five months ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 12:43 (five months ago) link
Seconded.
― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.), Wednesday, 18 October 2023 12:45 (five months ago) link
It's basically the opposite of song-based and rock-friendly, but my favorite Carla piece is 3/4, her relentless sidelong exploration of triple meter from the 1975 split LP with Michael Mantler's 13. Somehow it's never been released digitally (on CD or otherwise). Hopefully someone steps up to reissue, though original vinyl copies are still pretty cheap for now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fAJ3z293GA
― J. Sam, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 13:26 (five months ago) link
xp re: song-based stuff, check out the first (live) half of I Hate To Sing if you have a high tolerance for whimsy/goofiness.
― J. Sam, Wednesday, 18 October 2023 16:34 (five months ago) link