{"title":"Paul Bley","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn Hyman Paul Bley on 10 November 1932 in Montreal, Quebec, Paul Bley began studying violin at age five and switched to piano at seven. He received a junior diploma from McGill Conservatory at 11 and formed a band at 13 playing summer resorts. In 1949, aged 17, he replaced Oscar Peterson at Montreal's Alberta Lounge. He moved to New York in 1950 to study at Juilliard and became active in the city's jazz scene. In 1952, he co-founded the Montreal Jazz Workshop, bringing New York musicians to perform with local players. In 1953, he recorded with Charlie Parker in Montreal and released his debut album \u003cem\u003eIntroducing Paul Bley\u003c\/em\u003e with Charles Mingus on bass and Art Blakey on drums. He played with Lester Young and Ben Webster, and his trio with Al Levitt and Peter Ind recorded for Mercury in 1954. In 1957, he married composer Karen Borg, who became known as Carla Bley. He moved to Los Angeles and in October 1958 led a quintet at the Hillcrest Club with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Billy Higgins, and Charlie Haden, pioneering what became known as free jazz.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReturning to New York in 1959, Bley performed with Charles Mingus, George Russell, and Don Ellis. From 1961 to 1962, he was part of a groundbreaking trio with Jimmy Giuffre on reeds and Steve Swallow on bass. In 1963, offered jobs by both Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, he chose Rollins and toured Japan. His 1960s trio with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian became the standard by which other trios were measured. In 1964, he joined the Jazz Composers Guild with Carla Bley, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and Roswell Rudd. In 1968, he gave the first live synthesiser performance at Philharmonic Hall in New York and became a pioneer of Moog and ARP synthesisers. His 1972 ECM album \u003cem\u003eOpen, to Love\u003c\/em\u003e was a radical solo piano statement. In the 1990s, he taught at New England Conservatory. He received the Prix Oscar Peterson in 1994 and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2008. His last public performances were in 2010. He died of natural causes on 3 January 2016 in Stuart, Florida, aged 83.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"paul-bley-open-to-love-1973-original-german-ecm-lp-ecm-1023-pallas","title":"Paul Bley - Open, To Love (1973 Original German ECM LP, ECM 1023, Pallas)","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"1061\" data-end=\"1214\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: NM\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSleeve\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: EX\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur grading system explained \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Bley - \u003cem\u003eOpen, To Love\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1973 Original German ECM First Pressing (ECM 1023 ST, Pallas)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Bley's solo piano masterwork for ECM\u003c\/strong\u003e, recorded 1972 and produced by Manfred Eicher; the third solo piano album in ECM's catalogue, after Chick Corea's \u003cem\u003ePiano Improvisations\u003c\/em\u003e and Keith Jarrett's \u003cem\u003eFacing You\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the most influential solo piano recordings in jazz history\u003c\/strong\u003e, and certainly one that defined the sound of the German label ECM\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"whitespace-normal break-words pl-2\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOriginal first German pressing\u003c\/strong\u003e, lacquer cut and pressed at Schallplattenfabrik Pallas GmbH; ECM 1023 ST\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Bley recorded \u003cem\u003eOpen, To Love\u003c\/em\u003e on 11 September 1972 at Arne Bendiksen Studio in Oslo, under Manfred Eicher's production. He was 39 and had been a significant figure in jazz since the mid-1950s — he had run the Hillcrest Club in Los Angeles where Ornette Coleman first performed with a piano rhythm section, led early recordings for EmArcy and Savoy, and worked with Charles Mingus. By 1972 he had arrived at a point of maximum economy: minimal notes, extended silence, the sustain pedal used to let overtones breathe and decay. Seven tracks are the whole album. Five of them were written by Carla Bley and Annette Peacock — the two composers who had also been his partners. Carla's \"Ida Lupino,\" named for the British-born Hollywood actress and film director, is the album's centrepiece: seven and a half minutes of lyrical improvisation that remains among the most beautiful performances in Bley's discography. Her \"Closer\" opens the record and \"Seven\" closes Side B. Peacock's title track and \"Nothing Ever Was, Anyway\" flank the two Bley originals on the second side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBley's own \"Started\" and \"Harlem\" are contrafacts — compositions that work from and against earlier jazz material, dismantling familiar harmonic structures until they become something new. \"Started\" draws on the chord sequence of \"I Can't Get Started\"; both pieces are described by ECM as \"unspooling and reconfiguring jazz standards.\" This is the third solo piano album ECM released, after Chick Corea's \u003cem\u003ePiano Improvisations\u003c\/em\u003e and Keith Jarrett's \u003cem\u003eFacing You\u003c\/em\u003e. All three were produced by Eicher, all three recorded in the same period, and the three together constitute a founding document of ECM's aesthetic approach to solo piano. This is the original first German pressing, lacquer cut and pressed at Schallplattenfabrik Pallas GmbH.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ECM Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43283564560443,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_6396.jpg?v=1773530427"},{"product_id":"paul-bley-footloose-1993-japanese-savoy-vinyl-lp","title":"Paul Bley - Footloose (1993 Japanese Savoy Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp data-end=\"1214\" data-start=\"1061\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: EX\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSleeve\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e: EX\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObi:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNM\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOur grading system explained \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaul Bley - \u003cem\u003eFootloose\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1993 Japanese Savoy Reissue (COJY-9050, Supreme Collection of Savoy Part II No. 9, Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Bley was born in Montreal in 1932 and had worked with Charles Mingus, Jimmy Giuffre and Sonny Rollins before these sessions. The most important experience shaping his approach on \u003cem\u003eFootloose\u003c\/em\u003e was a lengthy engagement at the Hillcrest Club in Los Angeles in 1957–58 alongside Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Billy Higgins and Charlie Haden, where Bley found himself playing free of conventional harmonic structures for the first time. By 1962, when the first of these two Savoy sessions took place at Medallion Studios in Newark, Bley had a clear sense of where he was heading. He chose Steve Swallow on acoustic bass and Pete LaRoca on drums, a trio that met only in the recording studio but played together as though the relationship were much older.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe eight tracks across the LP draw from three composers. \"When Will the Blues Leave\" is an Ornette Coleman original, the only track here not composed by a member of the trio. Paul Bley wrote two pieces: \"Turns\" (A3) and \"Cousins\" (B2). The remaining five — \"Floater,\" \"Around Again,\" \"Syndrome,\" \"King Korn\" and \"Vashkar\" — are by Carla Bley, then Paul's wife and at the time essentially uncredited in the jazz world as a composer. The sessions took place in two blocks: three tracks on 17 August 1962, five on 12 September 1963. This is a 1993 Japanese Savoy reissue in the Supreme Collection of Savoy Part II series, manufactured by Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Savoy Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43375731343419,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_6523.jpg?v=1775128583"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/paul-bley.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}