Open, To Love (CD)

Montreal-born Paul Bley has had a remarkable career as a composer, pianist, and general instigator amongst his rarefied group of friends and collaborators. He is a distinctive player whose solos explode out of the harmonic frame like musical cubism, and his compositions balance bebop feel with avant-garde intellectualism. He has played with just about every important bop and free-jazz musician, from the 1950s through the current day, and has, through his imaginative and prolific recorded output, helped launch the careers of lesser-known writers and players. He has been married to two brilliant composers--Carla Bley and Annette Peacock--whose work he has lovingly covered in depth.

• Category:  Music  »  Jazz  »  Jazz Instrument
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: August 26, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: ECM Records (USA)
• UPC: 602517758278
• WAPI (Tower ID): 112253446
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #50487 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #3874 in Jazz (See Top 100 Jazz Bestsellers)
• #458 in Jazz Instrument (See Top 100 Jazz Instrument Bestsellers)

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Solo performer: Paul Bley (piano).

Recorded at Arne Bendiksen Studio, Oslo, Norway on September 11, 1972.

Personnel: Paul Bley (piano).

This 1972 solo piano album is one of Paul Bley's best--and this from a man who has made many excellent recordings. Beautiful in its brevity, the album is decorated with pieces that evoke the French composers Milhaud and Satie (though Bley is far more obtuse). Three compositions are by Carla Bley, two are by Annette Peacock (his first and second wives, respectively), and another two are by Bley himself. This is a perfectly balanced set. The pieces all ring with chamber-like clarity.

Carla Bley's inventive melodicism is a perfect vehicle for the pianist's similarly inclined improvisations. Her "Ida Lupino," which has been recorded in a number of successful settings (including a vocal version by NRBQ on their 1969 debut), is at its most gorgeous here. Paul Bley's perfectly titled "Harlem" is a blues-based portrait played with equal parts reverence, melancholy and late night exuberance. If you do not possess any Bley albums, this is one to start with. It is a classic in the solo piano idiom as well as a sterling portrait of this subtly bold pianist.

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