Results for "Paul Bley"

Paul Bley

"Since the Montreal-born, long-US resident Bley's 50's debut with Mingus and Blakey, he's worked with more first-rate, wide ranging original musical minds than anyone but Miles..." —Howard Mandel, Downbeat, April 1995 Bley gave violin recitals at age five. By age seven he was studying piano. He went through numerous classical teachers—including one Frenchman that had him play, balancing filled water glasses on the tops of his hands. At age 11 he graduated from the McGill Conservatory—having taken on their musical curriculum in addition to his public school education. Bley, who was known as "Buzzy" in his early adolescence, formed a band and played clubs and summer hotel jobs in the Laurentian Mountains at age 13. Four years later he replaced Oscar Peterson at the Alberta Lounge. Bley founded the Montreal Jazz Workshop and brought Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Brew Moore and Alan Eager to Montreal inorder to perform with them. In 1950 Bley left for New York City. He studied at the Julliard School of Music from 1950-54. While at Julliard, Bley had a band with Jackie MacLean, Donald Byrd, Arthur Taylor, Doug Watkins. In this period he toured with Lester Young, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge and Bill Harris. He was a frequent visitor at the famed Saturday night sessions at Lenny Tristano's studio. Bley served as president of the Associated Jazz Societies of New York in 1952, which led to Charlie Mingus hiring Bley to conduct his ensemble. Mingus also recorded Bley's debut album, along with himself and Art Blakey, on his label, Debut Records.

Yuri Honing: Sounds And Vision

By IAN PATTERSON

Strange that such a gruesome tale, drowning in blood, could have inspired so much great art. So it goes with Bluebeard, the seventeenth century French folktale, which continues to inspire artists to this day. Dutch saxophonist/composer Yuri Honing's Bluebeard (2020)-- his fourth album on Challenge Records with his acoustic quartet--is not just a highly personal take ...

The De Jong/Rebane/Kantonen Trio: Intercities

By KARL ACKERMANN

Intercities is the debut album from the trio of pianist Jetse de Jong, bassist Robert Rebane and drummer Roope Kantonen. The multi-national group hails from The Netherlands, Estonia, and Finland, respectively. All in their early twenties, the musicians met while attending the Conservatory of Amsterdam. De Jong, who studied both classical piano and jazz, was inspired ...

Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors, Barry Altschul: Around Again: The Music Of Carla Bley

By NERI POLLASTRI

Sontuosa rilettura di dodici tra le più belle composizioni di Carla Bley, quest'album nasce da un'idea del contrabbassista Ulf Krokfors, condivisa con la pianista Iro Haarla--che frequenta la musica di Carla fin dai tempi del conservatorio e che ha da sempre Paul Bley come modello pianistico--e poi concretizzata assieme a Barry Altschul, batterista nel trio del ...

Andy Milne: The reMission

By MIKE JURKOVIC

Ever hear a disc and wonder why the deep-seated beauty of some players' music escapes your radar? Juno Award-winning pianist and composer Andy Milne's The reMission, a challenging, tough, terse and ultimately triumphant recording, is one of those. One of those discs that, after several uninterrupted listens, has one digging into the discography scrambling to catch ...

Don Cherry: Cherry Jam

By KARL ACKERMANN

In the same year that composer/multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry recorded his milestone Complete Communion (Blue Note, 1966) he took his cornet to the studio of Danish National Radio. Cherry had established himself by the early 1960s, playing with Steve Lacy, Ornette Coleman, Paul Bley, John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler and Ed Blackwell. Copenhagen began ...

Mario Pavone: Philosophy

By GIUSEPPE SEGALA

Ci sono musicisti che percorrono con discrezione il proprio itinerario artistico e, pur senza collocarsi nel novero dei protagonisti, si ritagliano un ruolo importante di connettori, di tenaci tessitori delle trame che rendono vitale e significativo un periodo artistico. Il contrabbassista Mario Pavone è senz'altro uno di questi. Un musicista prezioso, prodigo di iniziativa. Lo abbiamo ...

Michael Formanek Very Practical Trio: Even Better

By GIUSEPPE SEGALA

Trigonometria musicale? Triangolazioni sonore? Certamente, la formula del trio ha sempre riscosso un'attenzione speciale nel jazz, non solamente nella sua forma classica e costantemente esplorata, che affianca pianoforte, contrabbasso e batteria. In particolare Jimmy Giuffre, negli anni Cinquanta e Sessanta, ne ha esplorato con grande profondità e acume alcune possibili varianti, sondando dinamiche, centri di gravità ...

Two trio recordings with Yoko Miura

By JOHN EYLES

Tokyo-born Yoko Miura took classical piano lessons from the age of 5 to 18. Inspired by players such as Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy and Paul Bley she took classes in jazz. She was soon playing concerts in Japan with players like guitarist Ryouichi Saito, percussionist Jyunzo Tateiwa and shamisen & bassist Noribumi Uchida. By 2001 she ...