Paul Bley RIP

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Bley's solo piece "Afterthoughts" from the "In the evening out there" early 1990s album on ECM (a first for me!) is wonderful and clocks in at only c. 4 minutes.

I may even request it.

France Musique played the ATTYA with Rollins and Hawk but only to the end of Paul's solo. He seemed to go back to that tune a lot in one form or another. His Nothing to declare alludes to it also

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

Bley's solo piece "Afterthoughts" from the "In the evening out there" early 1990s album on ECM (a first for me!) is wonderful and clocks in at only c. 4 minutes.


BN.

Granted that there is a "marmite" quality about ECM, I actually think that Paul Bley's approach was tailor made for the label as well as giving Eicher's label a degree of credibility especially in respect of it's propensity to record sub-Jarrett trios from various country's around Europe. As mentioned by both Bruce and myself, "Fragments" is one of the best records the label put out and the later "Adventure playground" which included John Surman / Gary Peacock / Tony Oxley is probably the most adventurous record Surman issued in the 1990's. There is a blues on this called "Bigfoot" which is terrific but "Fragments" is an "essential" Bley record. Bley's work on another European label, Owl, is pretty good too and these match Eitcher's attention to using a decent , well-tuned piano which is always a bonus in my opinion. With the likes of Jarrett, Bley , Taylor and Stenson on the books, ECM seemed to have the monopoly of great pianists on it's cards in the late 1980's / early 1990's and it is a shame that the oeuvre went in to the doldrums in the 2000's when more "shallow" acts like EST, Bad Plus, Tord Gustavsen, etc seemed to dominate things and lead to the likes of Neil Cowley and Go GO Penguin be seen as challenging these format in the second decade of the 2000's. None of these artists are within touching distance of the musicality of what Paul Bley seemed to be so endlessly able to produce.

[Serial_Apologist]

Granted that there is a "marmite" quality about ECM, I actually think that Paul Bley's approach was tailor made for the label as well as giving Eicher's label a degree of credibility especially in respect of it's propensity to record sub-Jarrett trios from various country's around Europe. As mentioned by both Bruce and myself, "Fragments" is one of the best records the label put out and the later "Adventure playground" which included John Surman / Gary Peacock / Tony Oxley is probably the most adventurous record Surman issued in the 1990's. There is a blues on this called "Bigfoot" which is terrific but "Fragments" is an "essential" Bley record. Bley's work on another European label, Owl, is pretty good too and these match Eitcher's attention to using a decent , well-tuned piano which is always a bonus in my opinion. With the likes of Jarrett, Bley , Taylor and Stenson on the books, ECM seemed to have the monopoly of great pianists on it's cards in the late 1980's / early 1990's and it is a shame that the oeuvre went in to the doldrums in the 2000's when more "shallow" acts like EST, Bad Plus, Tord Gustavsen, etc seemed to dominate things and lead to the likes of Neil Cowley and Go GO Penguin be seen as challenging these format in the second decade of the 2000's. None of these artists are within touching distance of the musicality of what Paul Bley seemed to be so endlessly able to produce.

I couldn't agree more, Ian

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I couldn't agree more, Ian

Bley's "Ballads", very trio abstract but very special was, I think, a very early ECM album but one of the few not CDd except in Japan? Could be wrong about this. His bass player on this date went on to become a major player in US studio quality hi fi systems/amplifiers. Aka Costa fortune.

Not many people know this.
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