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 | Carla Bley/ Paul Haines: Escalator Over The Hill (CD: JCOA/ ECM, 2 CDs)
Price: £24.99
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Carla Bley & Steve Swallow: Duets (CD: Watt)
Price: £14.99
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 | Carla Bley: The Very Big Carla Bley Band (CD: Watt)
Price: £14.99
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Carla Bley: The Very Big Carla Bley Band (Vinyl LP: Watt)
Price: £26.99
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Carla Bley: Big Band Theory (CD: Watt)
Price: £14.99
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 | Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard & Steve Swallow: Songs With Legs (CD: Watt)
Price: £14.99
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Carla Bley: Looking For America (CD: Watt)
With the aid of a powerful telescope and a healthy dose of irony the indefatigable Ms Bley goes looking for the heart and soul of America. New compositions, infected by a "patriotic virus", are played with verve by an almost all-American Big Band. Featured soloists include Gary Valente, Lew Soloff and willing European confederates Andy Sheppard and Wolfgang Puschnig. (ECM Records)
Price: £14.99
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 | Carla Bley Big Band: Appearing Nightly (CD: Watt)
“Carla Bley and Her Remarkable Big Band” – as it says on the cover - recorded live at Paris’s famous New Morning club in a set of new but nostalgically-inflected material. “We couldn’t bring back the past, but this was a chance to pay our respects to the wonderful big bands and great American songwriters that dominated American popular music in the first half of the 20th century”. Warm and witty playing by all of Bley’s cast in charts that bear out Nat Hentoff’s judgement: “Her scores for big jazz bands are matched only by those of Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus for yearning lyricism, explosive exultation and other expressions of the human condition.” (ECM Records)
Price: £14.99
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Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard & Steve Swallow: Andando el Tiempo (CD: ECM)
Released to celebrate Carla Bley's 80th birthday (on 11 May), Andando el Tiempo features new music of wide emotional compass by the pianist, and underlines her originality and resourcefulness as a jazz composer."Saints Alive!" sets up animated conversations between the participants with striking statements from Steve Swallow's bass guitar and Andy Sheppard's soprano sax. The stately "Naked Bridges/Diving Brides" draws inspiration from Mendelssohn and the poetry of Paul Haines. And the powerful three-part title composition - which addresses the trials and tribulations of recovery from addiction - moves through sorrow to hopefulness and joy. The trio with Sheppard and Swallow has been an ideal vehicle for Carla's writing for more than 20 years and also provides one of the best contexts for her unique piano playing. Like the critically lauded ECM album Trios (2012), Andando el Tiempo was recorded at Lugano's RSI Studio and produced by Manfred Eicher. (Proper Music)
Price: £14.99
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 | Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard & Steve Swallow: Life Goes On (CD: ECM)
A striking album of new music from pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow is now in its 25th year.Individual associations among the players go back much further: bassist Swallow first recorded music by Carla in 1961. So when Bley says "Life Goes On", a lot of life is alluded to. Following two other trio albums for ECM, Trios (2013) and Andando el Tiempo (2016), this recording, realized in the Auditorio Stelio Molo Studio in Lugano in May 2019, with Manfred Eicher producing, takes the form of three suites. The title piece begins as a stoical blues, at first melancholic then hopeful. "Beautiful Telephones", inspired by a US president's first observation on entering the Oval Office, has plenty of Bley's dark wit. And "Copycat" explores the notion of call-and-response in fresh ways as the improvisers continue each other's thoughts. Throughout, Carla's distinctive piano, with its hints of Monk and Satie, is beautifully framed by Swallow's eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard's yearning saxes. This trio has a unique collective sound, reflecting - as The Telegraph recently noted "musical mastery of a rare order". (Proper Music)
Price: £14.99
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