2023-10-18 14:43:17
Carla Bley in November 1995, in the United States. MICHAEL HERRMANN/ULLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTY IMAGES
Born in Oakland (California) on May 11, 1936, Lovella May Borg became known under the name of her first husband, the Canadian pianist Paul Bley (1932-2016). The American Carla Bley died on October 17, 2023 at her home in Willow (New York State), following a brain tumor. We don’t know who or what to highlight: the pianist? the prolific composer? the author of the desired arrangements? the conductor of an orchestra or band who does not hesitate to say that she wants to rise to the height of Duke Ellington (1899-1974) or Gil Evans (1912-1988)? this art of not being afraid and being beautiful?
Read the review: The radiant energy of Carla Bley and her four companions
All these qualities which are contained in what she calls her “way of being a woman”. His freedom to be. She talks about it with an inimitable mix of lucidity, frankness and humor, as evidenced by the ten hours of interview with journalist Alex Dutilh on France Musique in July 2011. The longest interview of her life, she says.
With Paul Bley, she is at the center of a formidable community: a galaxy of researchers, talents, innovators, poets, singers in direct touch with the times. Not in carelessness, but in joy. Paul Bley, trumpeter Mike Mantler, bassist Steve Swallow, her life companions, remain her performers, her partners, even after she separated from the first two. Life as the art of the possible.
Her father, a piano teacher and choirmaster, put her on keyboards from the age of 3. Only one purpose: that she play religious music. She knows she is provincial, when the discovery ofExplorations (1953), disconcerting and avant-garde album by saxophonist and arranger Teo Macero (1925-2008), pushes her intrepidly towards New York. To listen to as much jazz as possible, she became a cigarette seller at the Birdland club (she heard Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Count Basie there). There she met Paul Bley.
Formidable critical thinking
Marriage in 1957, separation two years later, which changed nothing in their musical understanding. Paul Bley, discreet visionary of an entire era, introduced him to saxophonist Ornette Coleman (1930-2015). She gets excited about free jazz without ever giving in on her desire and her freedom. Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Steve Kuhn and Art Farmer play his compositions. Later, she joined forces, wherever she passes, with inventors Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, Aldo Romano, Peter Brötzmann, Peter Kowald, etc.
In 1964, she met trumpeter and composer Michael Mantler with whom she joined the Jazz Composer’s Guild, of trumpeter Bill Dixon, alongside Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor, Gato Barbieri, Pharoah Sanders, etc. All those who indicate the paths of a music that we no longer call avant-garde or future, but simply contemporary.
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