Paul Bley
Paul Bley is a
free jazz pianist born in
Montreal,
Canada in
1932 and long resident in the
USA. His music characteristically features strong senses both of melodic voicing and space.
As well as being a distinctive and innovative musician himself, he has worked with a number of important musicians at key points.
In
1957, he played with
Don Cherry and
Ornette Coleman in
California.
In the early 1960s he was part of the
Jimmy Giuffre 3, a drummerless clarinet, piano and bass trio with bassist
Steve Swallow. The quiet understatement of this music makes it possible to overlook its degree of innovation. As well as a repertoire introducing compositions by
Carla Bley, the group's music moved towards
free improvisation based on close empathy.
In
1964 Bley was instrumental in the formation of the
Jazz Composers Guild - a co-operative organisation which brought together many of the most radical musicians in
New York.
Bley had long been interested in expanding the palette of his music using unconventional sounds (such as playing directly on the piano-strings). It was therefore consistent that he took an interest in new electronic possibilities appearing in the late 1960s. He pioneered the use of
Moog synthesizers, performing with them before a live audience for the first time.
This led into a period of the
Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show, a group where he worked with songwriter
Annette Peacock on bass and vocals.
Subsequently Bley returned to a predominant focus on the piano itself.
During the 1970s, Bley, in partnership with videographer Carol Goss, was responsible for an important multi-media initiative,
Improvising Artists Inc which issued important LPs and videos documenting the early group with
Ornette Coleman, solo piano recordings by
Sun Ra and other works of
free jazz.
Bley and Goss are credited in a
Billboard Magazine cover story with the first "
music video" as a result of the recorded and live performance collaborations they produced with jazz musicians and video artists.
Bley was an important influence on
Keith Jarrett.
*Coleman Classics (with
Ornette Coleman,
Don Cherry,
Charlie Haden,
Billy Higgins), IAI, recorded 1958
*Barrage (with
Marshall Allen,
Dewey Johnson,
Eddie Gomez,
Milford Graves),
ESP Disk, recorded 1964
*Touching (with
Kent Carter,
Barry Altschul), Debut, 1965
*Dual Unity (with
Annette Peacock,
Han Bennink,
Mario Pavone,
Laurence Cook), Freedom, recorded 1970
*With Gary Peacock,
ECM, 1970
*Open, to Love (solo piano),
ECM, 1972
*
Paul Bley/NHØP (with
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen),
SteepleChase Records,
1973*The Paul Bley Quartet (with
John Surman,
Bill Frisell and
Paul Motian),
ECM, recorded 1987
*Partners (with
Gary Peacock), 1990
*Not two, not one (with
Gary Peacock and
Paul Motian),
ECM, 1999
*Nothing to Declare (solo piano), 2004
*
biography (in German and English) and bibliography (in English)
