Jazz Articles about Paul Bley

Paul Bley / Kresten Osgood: Florida

by Troy Collins
June 24, 2007

"Without Paul Bley, there would be no Keith Jarrett" is conventional jazz wisdom perhaps, but worth repeating. Bley's expansive and unfettered approach to the keyboard (acoustic and electric) has provided a viable alternative for generations of artists seeking a creative path beyond the kinetic tendencies of Bley's principle peer, Cecil Taylor.

Bley, now 75, made his recording debut with Charlie Parker in 1953. Exploring an endless variety of aesthetic concepts and instrumental line-ups over the years, he has ...

Paul Bley: Turning Points

by Andrey Henkin
May 6, 2006

In the pantheon of jazz, certain players are spoken of as upholding or continuing a particular lineage while others are given their own chapter in the book--their body of work something for others to uphold and continue. Paul Bley is one of the latter, a pianist who for over 50 years has participated in every stylistic shift present in jazz. But to use the word 'participate' implies being carried along by others' momentum. No one carries Bley along; he chooses ...

Paul Bley: Circles

by AAJ Staff
December 26, 2004

Paul Bley's 1970 Synthesizer Show and 1972's Paul Bley and Scorpio are reissued jointly as Circles. Except for “Mr. Joy" from Synthesizer Show, all of the songs from these unconventional albums are presented here, featuring Bley's electronic experiments of the day. While the first half of the compilation sounds slightly dated at times, even humorous to modern ears, the second half is a better gauge of the unique advancements made by Bley in the '70s. No doubt, Bley was ahead ...

Paul Bley: Nothing to Declare

by AAJ Staff
August 2, 2004

In the intervening half century since he first appeared on record, pianist Paul Bley has cut a huge number of records and left an unmistakable trail of music defining his own view of avant-garde jazz. (Is is still called avant-garde decades later?) He's worked with a virtual who's who of improvised music, but here for his fifth solo release on Justin Time, it's just Bley and his piano doing the talking.

Bley has always had a talent for ...

Paul Bley: Nothing to Declare

by John Kelman
July 20, 2004

While pianist Paul Bley is renowned as a free player with an almost allergic aversion to music on the printed page, that doesn't mean that he doesn't have roots, or is afraid to show them. On Nothing to Declare , his fifth solo recording for the Canadian Justin Time label, his background in blues and standards is in deep evidence even as he takes these influences and twists them back and forth, up and down, until they manage to be ...

Time Will Tell: Conversations With Paul Bley

by Norman Weinstein
January 13, 2004

Time Will Tell: Conversations With Paul Bley Norman Meehan Berkeley Hills Books2003 Paul Bley's jazz career has been marked by a burning creative restlessness continually leading to new musical discoveries. An earlier book about Bley, Stopping Time, was a collaborative effort matching Bley the grand raconteur with writer David Lee. Time Will Tell repeats that formula,this time with jazz academic and journalist Norman Meehan, although with strikingly more success. Bley's storytelling about himself and his ...

Paul Bley: Basics

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

Jazz enthuasiasts who value the true innovators of the music are fortunate that Paul Bley is still pushing its boundaries through the inventions of a single instrument. Bley's style is so explorative and idiosyncratic--as was Monk's--that his imagination seems to continually consider and savor ideas, as one would value a work of art. Once the consideration process is through, Bley embellishes even the simplest idea and makes it part of his broader body of thought. For example, “Told You So" ...