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Paul Bley Trio: Closer
by Jerry D'Souza
Pianist Paul Bley is an innovator whose imagination eclipses the norm. He never wavers from a challenge and there is always an air of expectancy each time Bley sits at the piano. He is comfortable in any setting and his music has been shaped by several peers. Among them were Sonny Rollins, Carla Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, Charles Mingus, Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman.
In the final analysis, however, it is his vision that propels the music ...
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by Lyn Horton
Piano music has various personalities. It can be extroverted, jamming and far-reaching. It can be self-referential and have form that evolves only as it is played. It can be rigorously confined to form and fit well within conventional or traditional labels that have been assigned to it. Or it can be introverted and mindful, and beg to be embraced while being embracing.
The piano art of Paul Bley with his trio is the latter. This is more than evident on ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Solo In Mondsee
by Martin Gladu
The body may feel a bit tired, but the resolute, searching mind, is still very much intact; as sharp as an eagle's eye and as terrifying as a boxer's aim. Pianist Paul Bley has been searching relentlessly for half a century, yet his playing remains as fresh as spring water. His phrases are still as temperamental and intentionally destabilizing as they were in his younger years. It has always been like that with the Montreal-born giant; the music flowing like ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley/Archie Shepp/Bill Dixon/Cecil Taylor: Imagine the Sound
by Greg Camphire
Paul Bley/Archie Shepp/Bill Dixon/Cecil Taylor Imagine the Sound Films We Like 1981/2007
The state of jazz in America in 1981 has remained a sort of lost history, in no small part due to the resounding indifference met by a brilliant film of the same year: Imagine the Sound. Now, with the Ron Mann-directed documentary reissued on DVD for the first time, this overshadowed period can reenter the spotlight to educate, enlighten and entertain those ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley - Kresten Osgood: Florida
by AAJ Italy Staff
Basterebbe un solo ascolto di “Darkness”, la prima traccia, per lasciare senza fiato chiunque decida di avvicinarsi al presente lavoro: due minuti e mezzo sospesi tra silenzio ed emozione, un autentico distillato di sobrietà, commozione e inventiva. Chi segue Paul Bley fin dai tempi del leggendario Open to Love (anno di grazia 1972), sa benissimo a cosa si allude, ha già sperimentato sulla propria pelle la vertiginosa profondità che può raggiungere l’arte del maestro canadese nel tracciare improbabili parabole e ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Solo in Mondsee
by Budd Kopman
Paul Bley will be seventy-five in November, 2007 and has been recording for over fifty years, taking part in every revolution in jazz since 1950. Famously competitive and a tireless introspector, Bley is recognizable not so much by a particular style, but by his restless attitude and intensity, and perhaps the solidity of each note played. The wonderful and quite entrancing Solo in Mondsee is the result of Bley's relationship with the ECM label, which goes back ...
Continue ReadingPaul Bley: Solo in Mondsee
by John Kelman
It's been thirty-five years since pianist Paul Bley released Open, to love (ECM, 1972), an early classic of the then-nascent German record label. While Keith Jarrett's Facing You, from the same year, would go on to generate greater acclaim for the young pianist, listening to these two discs side-by-side reveals Bley's unmistakable influence. Despite ongoing critical acclaim throughout the ensuing years, Bley has never achieved Jarrett's degree of popular or financial success. While Jarrett packs houses with his ...
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