Paul Bley

Paul Bley – Ramblin’ (1969/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:00 minutes | 907 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Charly | BYG

Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ARP synthesizers. His music has been described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as “deeply original and aesthetically aggressive”. Bley’s prolific output includes influential recordings from the 1950s through to his solo piano recordings of the 2000s.

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Paul Bley – Introducing Paul Bley with Charlie Mingus, Art Blakey (1953/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:33 minutes | 372 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Introducing Paul Bley is the debut album by Canadian jazz pianist Paul Bley recorded in 1953 and released on Charles Mingus’ Debut label.

The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 3 stars stating “Paul Bley may not have been distinctive this early on but he clearly had a potentially strong future”. The Penguin Guide to Jazz called it “that astonishing debut with Mingus and Blakey on which he sounds edgy and a little cautious on the standards but absolutely secure in his technique”.
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Paul Bley – Paul Bley Play Blue: Oslo Concert (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:49 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © ECM

A rare solo performance by one of jazz’s great originals, Canadian pianist Paul Bley, recorded live at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2008 by Jan Erik Kongshaug and Manfred Eicher. There is nothing else quite like a Paul Bley concert. As the New York Times noted, “Mr. Bley long ago found a way to express his long, elegant, voluminous thoughts in a manner that implies complete autonomy from its given setting but isn’t quite free jazz. The music runs on a mixture of deep historical knowledge and its own inviolable principles.” Here Bley, encouraged by an attentive and enthusiastic Norwegian audience shapes music in the moment, plays his own compositions, and brings the music to a fine conclusion in a performance of Sonny Rollins’s “Pent-Up House”.
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Paul Bley – Blues for Red (2023 Remastered) (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:10:31 minutes | 686 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Red records

More straight-ahead than many Paul Bley outings, the 14 solo piano vignettes comprising this set reflect the versatility of this wide-ranging performer. There is an emphasis on the blues, and the pianist proves himself a formidable champion of that genre.

Fans of Bley’s traditional aesthetic should also find something here to admire, as he covers a wide range of styles. While everything is well played, there is a sense of ordinariness on some of the tracks. Nonetheless, Bley is too good a performer not to throw some gems in the pack, and there are flashes of his patented use of space and an occasional energetic cluster.

“While this is not an album that would serve well as an introduction to this wonderful performer, it will prove particularly rewarding to those who are familiar with the pianist’s work and wish to observe some different facets of his playing.” – Steve Loewy, All Music Guide

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