Carla Bley

Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow – Trios (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 56:16 minutes | 932 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow revisit classic Bley compositions in an exceptional album recorded in Lugano last year by Manfred Eicher. Included here are spirited new versions of “Utviklingssang” and “Vashkar”, and the suites “Les Trois Lagons”, “Wildlife” and “The Girl Who Cried Champagne”. Carla’s robust tunes are vividly conveyed, all members solo compellingly, and the trio has never sounded better.

Trios is one of the outstanding jazz albums of the season and marks the first time that a new Carla Bley album has appeared on ECM itself (rather than the ECM-distributed WATT label, which has been her primary platform for 40 years).

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Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow – Life Goes On (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:43 minutes | 942 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

A 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. 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.

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Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow – Andando El Tiempo (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 47:19 minutes | 785 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Andando el Tiempo features new music of wide emotional compass by Carla Bley, and underlines her originality and resourcefulness as a jazz composer. “Saints Alive!” sets up animated conversations between the participants with striking statements from Steve Swallow’s bass guitar and Andy Sheppard’s soprano sax. The stately “Naked Bridges/Diving Brides” draws inspiration from Mendelssohn and the poetry of Paul Haines. And the powerful three part title composition – which addresses the trials and tribulations of recovery from addiction – moves through sorrow to hopefulness and joy. The trio with Sheppard and Swallow has been an ideal vehicle for Carla’s writing for more than 20 years and also provides one of the best contexts for her unique piano playing. Like the critically lauded ECM album Trios (2012), Andando el Tiempo was recorded at Lugano’s RSI Studio and produced by Manfred Eicher.

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