Carla Bley
Carla Bley (* 11. May 1936 as Lovella May Borg in Oakland , California ) is an American jazz -Musikerin: composer , arranger , bandleader , pianist and organist .
biography
Carla Borg's parents were both musicians, her father a piano teacher and organist. She herself began to sing and play the piano and organ in church at the age of 4. In 1957 she married the jazz pianist Paul Bley (whom she met as a “cigarette girl” in Birdland ), who inspired her to compose for him. Soon she was playing in New York with Charles Moffett senior and Pharoah Sanders . From 1964 she led the Jazz Composer's Orchestra with Michael Mantler . In 1965 she had a quintet with Mantler and Steve Lacy . In 1966 she went on tour with Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald . After the studio project Escalator over the Hill (1967–1971) and working with Charlie Haden in the Liberation Music Orchestra (from 1969), from 1976 on she led mostly her own bands.
She married her band member Michael Mantler in 1967; her daughter Karen Mantler became a jazz organist. Since Mantler's return to Europe (1991), Carla Bley has lived with her longtime band member Steve Swallow . He is also an important musical partner for her on the electric bass . Musicians such as the strikingly earthy trombonist Gary Valente , the jazz horn player Vincent Chancey and her daughter Karen Mantler are also typical of their bands .
In 2006/2007 she was artist in residence at the Philharmonie Essen. In 2008 she performed live with her trio of Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard at Birdland, New York ( Songs with Legs ). In 2009 she was awarded the German Jazz Trophy and in 2012 an honorary doctorate from the Université de Toulouse II – Le Mirail . In 2018, Bley was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
plant
From around the mid-1960s, Carla Bley made herself known as a witty and innovative jazz composer; first she wrote for Paul Bleys Trio, then also for George Russell , Jimmy Giuffre and Art Farmer . In 1964 she founded the Jazz Composer's Orchestra (JCO) with Mike Mantler . In 1967 she composed the highly acclaimed A Genuine Tong Funeral for Gary Burton . After three years of recording work, she published one of the few jazz operas in 1971: the Escalator over the Hill composed by her (awarded the French Grand Prix du Disque in 1973 ).
She has released several of her own jazz albums on her own label WATT, founded with Michael Mantler, whose records are distributed via ECM . Her Carla Bley Band , which was particularly active in the 1970s / 80s, plays original concert-style big band - jazz , in line with the contemporary successor to Duke Ellington and Gil Evans . With part of this band she also recorded the album Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports with her own compositions. In 2016 she performed her jazz opera La Leçon Française with the NDR big band and a boys' choir .
As an arranger, she has played a major role in Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra since 1969 , which in 2005 brought out Not In Our Name , an album conceived as a protest against American politics. (After Haden's death, she also directed this ensemble.)
An interesting characterization of her music appeared in the FAZ on the occasion of her 70th birthday:
“Carla Bley is the most monstrous chameleon that jazz knows. And a gigantic irritation. At face value you can't take anything that she says, does, plays or composes together. […] You have to think along with the unorthodox daughter of a church musician from Oakland, have to withstand her irony and how she breaks conventions by apparently adapting, after all, the music must not be understood as a pure glass bead game in order to serve her and possibly from you to become enlightened. "
Discography (selection)
- 1971 Escalator over the Hill (Carla Bley and Paul Haines )
- 1974 Tropic Appetites (Carla Bley)
- 1977 Dinner Music (Carla Bley)
- 1978 European Tour 1977 (Carla Bley Band)
- 1979 Musique Mecanique (Carla Bley Band)
- 1981 Fictitious Sports ( Nick Mason , recorded 1979)
- 1981 Social Studies (Carla Bley Band)
- 1982 Live! (Carla Bley Band)
- 1984 I Hate to Sing (Carla Bley Band)
- 1984 Heavy Heart (Carla Bley)
- 1985 Night-Glo (Carla Bley)
- 1987 sextet (Carla Bley)
- 1988 Duets (Carla Bley and Steve Swallow)
- 1989 Fleur Carnivore (Carla Bley)
- 1990 Orchestra Jazz Siciliana Plays the Music of Carla Bley (recorded 1989, conducted by Carla Bley)
- 1991 The Very Big Carla Bley Band (Carla Bley Band)
- 1992 Go Together (Carla Bley and Steve Swallow)
- 1993 Big Band Theory (Carla Bley)
- 1994 Songs With Legs (Carla Bley)
- 1996 … Goes To Church (Carla Bley Big Band)
- 1998 Fancy Chamber Music (Carla Bley)
- 1999 Are We There Yet? (Carla Bley and Steve Swallow)
- 2000 4x4 (Carla Bley)
- 2003 Looking for America (Carla Bley Big Band), awarded the German Record Critics' Prize 2003 \ 3
- 2004 The Lost Chords (Carla Bley), awarded the German Record Critics' Prize 2004 \ 3
- 2007 The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu (with Paolo Fresu , Andy Sheppard , Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond )
- 2008 Appearing Nightly (Carla Bley & her Remarkable Big Band)
- 2009 Carla's Christmas Carols (Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, The Partyka Brass Quintett )
- 2013 Trios (Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Andy Sheppard, ECM)
- 2016 Andando el Tiempo (with Steve Swallow, Andy Sheppard, ECM)
- 2020 Life Goes On (with Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, ECM)
Film music
- 1983 Mortelle Randonnee (Director: Claude Miller, Actor: Isabelle Adjani)
DVD video
- 1983/2003 Live in Montreal
- 1988/2001 Famous Jazz Duets: Chick Corea & Gary Burton, Carla Bley & Steve Swallow - Live in Concert
literature
- Konrad Heidkamp ; Sophisticated Ladies , Rowohlt 2003 (with chapter Carla Bley - Femme musicale )
Web links
- Carla Bley at Discogs (English)
- Carla Bley in conversation with Frank J. Oteri
- Information from allaboutjazz about Songs with Legs 2008
- Website from Carla, Karen etc.
Remarks
- ↑ 1938 based on Reclam's Jazz Guide 1989 and Kunzler's Jazzlexikon 2002; In the JazzThing podcast , Carla Bley herself - unlike in the jazz encyclopedias - gives 1936 as the year of birth and explains the confusion (1936 or 1938)
- ↑ Bley, Carla (Lovella May Borg) ( Memento of 2 March 2015, Internet Archive ) in the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians.
- ↑ Happy Birthday, Carla Bley!
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bley, Carla |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Carla Borg |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American musician and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 11, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oakland , California |