Carla Bley, née Borg, (born May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill (released as a triple LP set), as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer and her ex-husband Paul Bley. May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Cover from album by Bud Powell. ... An organist is a musician who plays the organ, whether pipe or electronic. ... Free jazz is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. ... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan. ... Escalator Over The Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a chronotransduction with words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler, performed by the Jazz Composers Orchestra (JCOA). ... Gary Burton (born on 23 January 1943 in Anderson, Indiana) is a jazz vibraphone player, known for developing the then-innovative technique of playing the instrument with four mallets, rather than the usual two. ... James Peter Giuffre (born in Dallas, Texas, 1921) is an American jazz saxophone and clarinet player. ... George Allen Russell (born June 23, 1923) is an American jazz composer and theorist. ... Arthur Stewart (Art) Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999), was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. ... Paul Bley is a free jazz pianist born in Montreal in 1932 and long resident in the USA. His music characteristically features strong senses both of melodic voicing and space. ...

Bley was born in Oakland, California. Her father, a piano teacher and church choirmaster, encouraged her to sing and to learn to play the piano. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen ^[1], she moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland, where she met jazz pianist Bley, whom she married in 1957 ^[2]. He encouraged her to start composing. The two later divorced. Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California[1] and the county seat of Alameda County. ... The classic (pre-inline) quad roller skate design of four wheels in a rectangular pattern. ... Nickname: Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Staten Island Settled 1613 Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City in 1949. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Her compositions were soon beginning to appear on record — for example, "Bent Eagle" on George Russell's Stratusphunk in 1960, and then Ictus on Jimmy Giuffre's Thesis and Paul Bley's Barrage. Thesis is a 1961 album by the Jimmy Giuffre 3. ...

In 1964 she was involved in organising the Jazz Composers Guild which brought together the most innovative musicians in New York at the time. She then had a personal and professional relationship with Michael Mantler, with whom she had a daughter, Karen, now also a musician in her own right. Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Michael Mantler (born August 10, 1943 in Vienna, Austria) is a composer and musician in new jazz and contemporary music. ...

With Mantler, she co-led the Jazz Composers' Orchestra and started the JCOA record label which issued a number of historic recordings by Clifford Thornton, Don Cherry and Roswell Rudd, as well as her own Escalator Over The Hill and Mantler's Jazz Composers' Orchestra LPs. Bley and Mantler followed with WATT records, which has issued their recordings exclusively since the early 1970s. Bley and Mantler were pioneers in the development of independent artist-owned record labels and also started the now defunct New Music Distribution Service which specialized in small, independent labels that issued recordings of creative improvised music. Jazz Composers Orchestra was a jazz group founded in 1964 to further avant-garde jazz in New York City. ... Don Cherry (18 November 1936 - 19 October 1995) was an innovative jazz trumpeter probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. ... Roswell Rudd (born Roswell Hopkins Rudd, Jr. ... Escalator Over The Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a chronotransduction with words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler, performed by the Jazz Composers Orchestra (JCOA). ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...

Bley has collaborated with a number of other artists, including [Jack Bruce],Robert Wyatt and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, whose 1981 solo album Fictitious Sports was a Carla Bley album in all but name. She arranged and composed music for Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, and wrote A Genuine Tong Funeral for Gary Burton. Her arrangement of the music for Federico Fellini's 8½ appeared on Hal Willner's Nino Rota tribute record, Amarcord Nino Rota. She has also contributed to other Hal Willner projects, including the song "Misterioso" for the tribute to Thelonious Monk entitled "That's the Way I Feel Now", which included Johnny Griffin as guest musician on tenor saxophone, and the Willner-directed tribute to Kurt Weill, entitled "Lost in the Stars", where she and her band contributed an arrangement of the title track, with Phil Woods as guest musician on alto saxophone. // Robert Wyatt, born Robert Ellidge, in Bristol on 28 January 1945, is an English musician, and a former member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band noted for psychedelic rock music, philosophical lyrics, classical rock compositions, sonic experimentation, innovative cover art, and elaborate live shows. ... Nicholas Berkeley (Nick) Mason (born January 27, 1944 in Birmingham, England) is a musician and the drummer for Pink Floyd. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason released his first solo album Fictitious Sports in May of 1981 in the UK and US. The album was basically a Carla Bley album in all but name. ... Charlie Haden, Pescara Italy 1990 Charles Edward Haden (born August 6, 1937) is a jazz double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. ... Gary Burton (born on 23 January 1943 in Anderson, Indiana) is a jazz vibraphone player, known for developing the then-innovative technique of playing the instrument with four mallets, rather than the usual two. ... Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was one of the most influential and widely revered Italian film-makers of the 20th century and is considered to be one of the finest film directors of all time. ... 8½ (Italian: Otto e Mezzo) is a 1963 film written and directed by Italian director Federico Fellini. ... Hal Willner (born 1957, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a music producer working in recording, Films, TV and live events. ... Nino Rota (December 3, 1911 – April 10, 1979) was an Italian composer. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... John Arnold Griffin III (born in 1928) is an American bop and hard bop tenor saxophonist. ... Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900 – April 3, 1950), born in Dessau, Germany and died in New York City, was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s until his death. ... Philip Wells Woods (born in 1931) is an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. ...

Carla Bley has continued to record frequently with her own big band and a number of smaller ensembles. Her partner, the bassist Steve Swallow, has been her closest and most consistent musical associate in recent years. In 1997, a live version of Escalator over the Hill was performed for the first time in Cologne, Germany; in 1998 "Escalator" toured Europe, and another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen, Germany. Steve Swallow (b. ... Cologne (German:   ; Kölsch: Kölle /ˈkÅ“É«É™/) is Germanys fourth-largest city after Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than... [Essen], german for Meal [essen], german for eat Essen is the name of the following places: Essen, Germany, one of the major cities of the Ruhr area Essen, Belgium Essen, Netherlands, a village in the province of Groningen German: to eat, eating, food This is a disambiguation page — a navigational...

In 2005 she arranged the music for and performed on Charlie Haden's latest Liberation Music Orchestra tour and recording, Not in Our Name. Charlie Haden, Pescara Italy 1990 Charles Edward Haden (born August 6, 1937) is a jazz double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. ...

Discography

• 1971: Escalator over the Hill (Carla Bley and Paul Haines)
• 1974: Tropic Appetites (Carla Bley)
• 1975: Live in 75' (The Jack Bruce band)
• 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)
• 1983: The Ballad of the Fallen (Charlie Haden and Carla Bley)
• 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)
• 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)
• 2000: 4x4 (Carla Bley)
• 2003: Looking for America (Carla Bley Big Band)
• 2004: The Lost Chords (Carla Bley)
• 2005: Not in Our Name (with Charlie Haden/ Liberation Music Orchestra)

Escalator Over The Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a chronotransduction with words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler, performed by the Jazz Composers Orchestra (JCOA). ... Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason released his first solo album Fictitious Sports in May of 1981 in the UK and US. The album was basically a Carla Bley album in all but name. ... Nicholas Berkeley (Nick) Mason (born January 27, 1944 in Birmingham, England) is a musician and the drummer for Pink Floyd. ... The Ballad of the Fallen is a jazz album by bassist Charlie Haden, recorded in 1982 and released in 1983. ...

DVD–video

• 1983/2003: Live in Montreal

References

1. ^ Ben Sidran, Talking Jazz: An Illustrated Oral History, Pomegranate Artbooks, 1992
2. ^ Philippe Carles, André Clergeat, and Jean-Louis Comolli, Dictionnaire du jazz, Paris, 1994

External links

• Official Carla Bley Website
• EJN: Carla Bley
• Carla Bley in conversation with Frank J. Oteri
• Watt/XtraWatt music label