CARLA BLEY 1936-2023 RIP

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[alitabbal]

Thank you Andy for this obituary, Carla Bley music will live for ever, I saw 2 times in concert in Paris, it was out of this world RIP Carla ❤

[oolongoolong]

Thanks for that tribute to Carla Bley. The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (Fusion) did wonderfully evocative versions of two lovely Carla Bley tunes - 'Jesus Maria' and 'In The Mornings Out There'. RIP

[snlfortherecord]

Waking up to this wonderful tribute to Carla has warmed up my heavy heart. When I was in college, I heard Escalator in a bar in Baltimore and have been captivated by her and inspired by her in that heavyweight-female-role-model kind of way that shapes your view of what’s possible. I love her Duets with Steve. And Musique Mechanique. And Genuine Tong Funeral. Okay, I’ll stop. But I absolutely had to say thank you for this. My hubby and I love your channel. From across the pond, Laura

[lindsayandrews]

Carla Bley certainly deserved this great obituary. An amazing artist. Well done Andy. She made the Fictitious Sports album with Nick Mason from PF. She was not afraid to make brave choices! R.I.P. Carla.

[robmeehan]

Thank you. You in no way overestimate her importance. She is as important as Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Frank Zappa and Philip Glass, a few of my other heroes. I met her at a weekend symposium on new music in NY. John Cage, Charles Wuorinen, Frederick Rzewski and Allen Ginsburg were also there. For the last day concert, she performed Cage's Piano Concerto during a thunderstorm that was echoing off the mountains...pure magic. Later that evening at the campsite a raccoon came between my buddy and I to steal a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Ha! Ha! I had two bags. I believe she at one point auditioned for the Zappa Band, but was declined because she was too good. She made a book of arrangements of Christmas Carols that was published by My Weekly Reader, somewhat of a rarity now. Nick Mason made an album of her compositions, Fictitious Sports with Robert Wyatt as main vocalist. I played Escalator so much I had to buy a second LP and later the CD. A record store owner used to bring me boxes of discs to peruse, Escalator was in one of them when it was still new. I wrote a synopsis and commentary on the work as part of a presentation of it on WWUH radio's opera programming in the 80's. She was an amazing human being (who hated to sing). She will always be important to me. Thank you again for this wonderful tribute.

[dbarker]

Thanks for this tribute to a brilliant composer and bandleader. Oddly, just the other day I was listening to an interview with Steve Swallow from a few years ago. At one point there's a knock at the door and Swallow says "Oh I think Carla Bley is here."
RIP.

[monsieurlehigh]

In a quartet of musicians and close friends of mine, we played "Utviklingssang" almost every Thursday evening – two of them died last year. Now I'm sitting here crying. 😢

[mk-cxov]

RIP Carla Bley. Musique Mecanique is a favorite.

[dsjwhite]

Thank you Andy, great report, great obituary.

[abbazabbado]

Thank you so very VERY much for this fine "tribute" to a true giant of (especially) 60s and 70s jazz. Like many here, my first introduction was via that masterpiece, ‘Escalator Over the Hill’. A few years later I found a much earlier collection of her tunes entitled ‘A Genuine Tong Funeral’ (1968), another masterpiece for those unfamiliar, by the proto-fusion Gary Burton Quintet (then featuring Larry Coryell on guitar), and soon thereafter even more music so penned, this time in the ECM mold. ‘Dreams So Real’ (1975), again by the Gary Burton Quintet was (and still is) an evening favorite (especially the ‘B’ side), though the group had changed quite a bit, and included some then unknown kid with the hair on #2 guitar name 'o Pat Metheny. You simply couldn't go wrong with anything she did, and the musicians she managed to gather around her were legends as well. If there’s a heaven . . . well, they better watch out. She’s seriously gonna rearrange the drapes around there.

[rolfjamne]

Thank you Andy.
I Just want to add
Michael Mantler's Happles child and other inscrutable stories
The darkest prog album ever made.
Line up.
Carla Bley
Steve Swallow
Jack De Jonette
Robert Wyatt
Terje Rypdal

[TheOverlordOfProcrastination]

If anyone was ever touched by glory it’s Carla for bringing us Lawns.
It makes me cry, and I don’t cry easy.

[karelvandervelden]

Thank you. Must revisit her music. Had that 3piece tango on tape. (and other tracks)
Saw her band mid eighties, rooftop North Sea Jazz festival The Hague, very memorable.

[TNTFX]

Hi. Just watch your video posted as a tribute to the great Carla Bley. I am a big fan of her music and find really interesting that you mention about more than a female leader of a big band, but a a great composer and writing specifically for the musicians with her at the time throughout her prolific career.
You mention a piece of music video from her, and I relate it to dvd titled “Live in Montreal” released n 2002 that shows a concert from July 1983. Only this one has Victor Lewis on drums. Anyways. I enjoyed your tribute to one of my favorite Jazz musicians.
God bless her.

[martinbravey]

I've been dreading this obituary. 'Escalator' is the soundtrack of my early musical life. Thank you Carla.

[callmejeffbob]

Thanks for the tribute; she was indeed great. I left a rather long, rambling post in here yesterday but somehow it disappeared...sigh, oh well. I won't try to rewrite it in full. However, along with all the other fine Carla Bley albums everyone in here is talking about, I'd like to recommend one more, . It's called "Fleur Carnivore", a live recording of her 14 piece band from 1988. It's not nearly as "out there" as Escalator Over the Hill" or "Tropic Appetites". It has five exquisitely written and arranged compositions with some great solos played by folks like Lew Soloff (trumpet) and Andy Sheppard (saxophones) who were both frequent members of her bands for many years.

RIP Ms. Bley

[Emlizardo]

Thanks so much, Andy. We love it when you just shoot from the hip and put the videos out there while the impulse is fresh. As far as the mainstream media, you might be gratified to know that here in the States both the New York Times and the Washington Post published lengthy, substantial obituaries for Carla, hopefully sending people scurrying to go find out more.

[HarounelMacki]

Thanks Andy, for a great tribute to a great musician. Hearing the 'Escalator' (while washing the dishes at a friend's house when I was 20 or so) changed my life and my conception of music. It still has me in tears regularly - either because of Gato Barbieri's saxophone screaming like a woman (pushing the boundaries of the feasible, very moving and shocking) or the heavenly voice of a young Linda Ronstadt - and it did again this morning in the car after hearing about Carla's passing. I saw her a few years ago in my country with Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard and felt really blessed (sorry for gushing). 'Dinner Music' is another favourite but there's too many to mention. I've always felt that if we can get McLaughlin, Bruce, Ronstadt, Cherry, Motian and so many others together on a co-operative project, we are not yet lost, there's still hope in dark times. That's her wonderful legacy of humour and hope. 'Birds grow in the sky' indeed. Cheers!

[TerryYelmene]

A great Artist WILL BE MISSED. So long, Ms. Bley.

[paulmcmillen]

I have Carla's Tropic Appetites 1974 record. She was leading an octet of elite instrumentalists and she had Julie Tippets (Driscoll) on lead vocal. Five of the tracks are vocal pieces that Carla composed the vocal melodies and band arrangements for interpreting Paul Hanes poems about his trip to Cambodia. Julie was a perfect choice. These are my favorite vocal pieces, ever. Julie's vocal for these Carla melodies are beautiful, just incredible.