It concludes with 'And Then One Day,' where Bley holds down the rhythm with a repeated figure, over which Sheppard plays jaunty lines that have more than a whiff of Paul Desmond's cool tone. The opening movement of the title track is sly blues before turning to two parts that explore her trademark melodic mingling of classical music discipline and free jazz adventure. Originally influenced by '60s jazz avant-garde, Bley, as evidenced by her latest, Life Goes On, has fashioned her own jazz ethos-what ECM's Manfred Eicher has called her 'radical originality.' In jazz groups of any size longevity is often impossible as the essence of the music is often dependent on the potential of new combinations of talent, and yet a large part of Bley's recent success is keyed by her working trio of bassist/life partner Steve Swallow and saxophonist Andy Sheppard, who've been together for 25 years.īased around three suites-her most preferred form of composition-the lean and spacious Life Goes On is wonderfully confident and distinct. Buy the album Starting at 8.59€Ī sage piano stylist audibly influenced by Basie and Monk among others, Carla Bley has over the past 60 years also become one of jazz's preeminent composers. This music is gripping and immensely fun.Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs. This fine pulsing interplay is achieved with the help of a classic sense of time and privileged articulation.īley, Swallow and Sheppard engage on straightforward jazz narratives devoid of artificiality. The last suite, Copycat, starts as a soul-soothing ballad and ends as an elegant, dialoguing post-bop bliss shaped with unisons and cascading melody replications. Bley and Swallow, knowing exactly when to lay back and when to push, have their emotionally-rich layers touch a tango-inspired literacy, effortlessly mingled with an instinctive swinging thrust. The second part, mysterious and dreamy, contrasts with the more hopeful third, which, at the outset, includes a rhythmic piano-bass duality that feels more cohesive than disjointed. The first of them is a piano-bass duet immersed in such pathos that impels Swallow to quote Chopin’s famous funeral march. Inspired by Trump’s first observation on entering the Oval Office, Beautiful Telephones comprises three segments. Harmonic movements similar to Lee Morgan’s “ Totem Pole” seem to be transported here and filtered through the trio’s exclusive prism.

After the waltzing third part - “ And On” - there’s the last section, “ And Then One Day”, which brings into my head another jazz classic. Already with Sheppard on board blowing the concluding theme statement, a spark of Monk’s “ Ask Me Now” becomes clearer. The second part, “ On”, is deliciously sluggish in its lyricism and a vehicle for Swallow and Bley’s gracious remarks. The first of them, “ Life Goes On”, is a pristine blues, early defined by Bley’s bass lines and with the melodic voice leading alternating between Swallow and Sheppard, two assured improvisers. This album is composed of three suites and opens with the title track, whose four distinct, poised and warmhearted parts suffuse an underlying magnificence that refuses excesses of any kind. Effectively, Bley’s unique compositional lay outs translate into unmistakable sonic aesthetics delivered with elegance, strength, tenderness and wittiness. Her quarter-century drum-less trio, which includes her husband, bassist Steve Swallow, and the British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, enriches the ECM catalogue with another disc, Life Goes On, the follow-up to Andando El Tiempo (2016).

Pianist/composer Carla Bley forged an unprecedented path in the jazz world on account of exceptional creative capacities.

Life goes on carla bley review