Carla Bley

后Bop爵士時期的優(yōu)秀作曲家相對于Bop的顛峰時期，顯得較少了，而鋼琴手Carla Bley 是其中最重要的一位作曲者。她是一位幽默風趣的女性，她的彈奏風格也就像他的性格一樣，充滿不可預測的色彩，她的音樂也同時給樂迷很大的想象空間。
Carla Bley 在1955年時來到紐約市。在紐約市她與具有前衛(wèi)觀念的音樂家合作，像是George Russell與Jimmy Giuffre等人。之后她嫁給她的第一任丈夫Paul Bley（也是為鋼琴手）。1964年她與小喇叭手Michael Mantler結婚，1966年她組織Jazz Composers Guild Orchestra（JCOA）。
1969年Carla Bley為貝斯手Charlie Haden的樂團 Liberation Music Orchestra制作樂曲。70年代與80年代，她持續(xù)在經(jīng)營JCOA，也與她的第二任丈夫Mike Mantler（小喇叭手）一起經(jīng)營 Watt唱片公司。JCOA這個組織在 80年代后期做一個結束。之后的十多年以來的時間，Carla Bley仍然很努力在音樂上做表現(xiàn)，她持續(xù)帶領一個中型的樂團，進行演奏與錄唱片的工作。 她也參與1985年的電影Mortelle Randone制作電影原聲帶。
by Chris Kelsey
Post-bop jazz has produced only a few first-rate composers of larger forms; Carla Bley ranks high among them. Bley possesses an unusually wide compositional range; she combines an acquaintance with and love for jazz in all its forms with great talent and originality. Her music is a peculiarly individual type of hyper-modern jazz. Bley is capable of writing music of great drama and profound humor, often within the confines of the same piece. As an instrumentalist, Bley makes a fine composer; she plays piano and/or organ with most of her bands, and while her playing is always quite musical, its clear that her strengths lie elsewhere. Bleys asymmetrical compositional structures subvert jazz formula to wonderful effect, and her unpredictable melodies are often as catchy as they are obscure. In the tradition of jazzs very finest composers and improvisers, Bley has developed a style of her very own, and the music as a whole is the better for it.
Born Carla Borg, Bley learned the fundamentals of music as a child from her father, a church musician. Thereafter, she was mostly self-taught. Bley moved to New York around 1955, where she worked as a cigarette girl and occasional pianist. She married pianist Paul Bley, for whom she began to write tunes (she also wrote for George Russell and Jimmy Giuffre). In 1964, with her second husband, trumpeter Michael Mantler, Bley formed the Jazz Composers Guild Orchestra, which a year later became known simply as the Jazz Composers Orchestra. Two years later, Bley helped found the Jazz Composers Orchestra Association, a non-profit organization designed to present, distribute, and produce unconventional forms of jazz.
In 1967, vibist Gary Burtons quartet recorded Bleys cycle of tunes A Genuine Tong Funeral, which brought her to the attention of the general public for the first time. In 1969, Bley composed and arranged music for Charlie Hadens Liberation Music Orchestra. In 1971, Bley completed the work that cemented her reputation, the jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill. In the 70s and 80s, Bley continued to run the JCOA and compose and record for her own Watt label. The JCOA essentially folded in the late 80s, but Bleys creative life has continued mostly unabated. For much of the past two decades, shes maintained a mid-sized big band with fairly stable personnel to tour and record. Shes also worked a great deal with the bassist Steve Swallow, in duo and in ensembles of varying size.
Bley wrote the music for the soundtrack to the 1985 film Mortelle Randone. She also contributed new compositions to the Liberation Music Orchestras second incarnation in 1983. All through the 80s, 90s, and into the new millennium, Bley continued releasing albums through ECM, ranging from duets with bassist Steve Swallow to the Very Big Carla Bley Band. She released a third duets album with Steve Swallow, Are We There Yet?, in 2000, Looking for America in 2003, and The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu in 2007.