Remembering Carla Bley
May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023
A tribute to the pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader
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Pianist-composer-arranger-bandleader Carla Bley passed away on Oct. 17, 2023 at the age of 87.
She was born as Lovella May Borg on May 11, 1936 in Oakland.
Bley sang (which she later gave up) and played piano from an early age.
When she was 17, she moved to New York, worked as a cigarette girl at Birdland, and met pianist Paul Bley who she married in 1957.
Paul Bley encouraged Carla to compose and he recorded her compositions on his Barrage album; Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell were among those who also recorded some of her songs early on.
Carla Bley divorced Paul Bley in the mid-1960s and married trumpeter Michael Mantler in 1965.
In 1964 she was involved with the Jazz Compsers Guild, she co-ed the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra with Mantler, and they founded and ran the independent JCOA label in addition to starting the New Music Distribution Service.
Bley wrote music for bassist Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, composed A Genuine Tong Festival for vibraphonist Gary Burton, wrote the jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill in the late 1960s, and led more than 25 albums during 1966-2019.
Carla Bley led her own big band on and off during the 1970s, ‘80’s and ‘90s, divorced Mantler and became closely associated with bassist Steve Swallow, wrote for the later version of Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra (leading it after the bassist’s passing), and often performed in duets and trios with Swallow and sometimes saxophonist Andy Sheppard in her later years.
Although not a virtuoso pianist, nevertheless Bley was able to fully express herself on the piano while was best known as an arranger-composer, one who had a sardonic wit and a distinctive musical personality.
Among her best known compositions were “Bent Eagle,” “Jesus Maria,” “Ictus,” “Wrong Key Donkey,” “Floater,” “Ictus,” “Ida Lupino,” ‘Sing Me Softly Of The Blues,” “Reactionary Tango,” and “Lawns.”
Here is Carla Bley and electric bassist Steve Swallow in 1989 performing “Sing Me Softly Of The Blues.”
-Scott Yanow
