Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Paul Bley Trios: Touching & Blood Revisited
Paul Bley Trios: Touching & Blood Revisited
ByThese recordings of Bley's trio from 1965 and 1966 were originally released as Touching (Debut Records, 1965) (Mingus' label) and Blood (Fontana, 1966). The first LP recorded in Copenhagen followed by Haarlem in The Netherlands. The constant in the trio was drummer Barry Altschul with the bass role swapped between Kent Carter and Mark Levinson. The overriding themes here are Bley's navigation through free jazz with bebop articulation. Or is it bebop with a free jazz articulation? Rather than rejecting his past (and also that of jazz) à la Cecil Taylor, Bley combines the two. His trio, especially with Altschul's expressive drumming, opens the music to painterly application of sound and silence of "Touching," dynamic interplay "Start," and an off-kilter bluesy swing "Mazatlan." Revisiting these documents from nearly fifty years ago informs today's listeners of the foundations of our 21st century jazz.
Track Listing
Cartoon; Touching; Start; Mazatlan; Closer; Both; Pablo; Blood.
Personnel
Album information
Title: Touching & Blood Revisited | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Ezz-thetics
< Previous
Sounds of Interstellar Space
Comments
Tags
Paul Bley Trios
Album Review
Mark Corroto
Touching & Blood Revisited
Ezz-Thetics
Paul Bley
Lester Young
Charlie Parker
Charles Mingus
Sonny Rollins
Ornette Coleman
Jimmy Giuffre
Marshall Allen
Milford Graves
Keith Jarrett
Matthew Shipp
Craig Taborn
Satoko Fujii
Barry Altschul
Kent Carter
Cecil Taylor