![]() ![]() Two years later Bley provided both arrangements and original compositions for Charlie Haden ’s Liberation Music Orchestra, an album celebrating the spirit of the Spanish Civil War. Her cycle of pieces, A Genuine Tong Funeral. ![]() Education: Attended public schools until age 15.īegan composing in the late 1950s, writing pieces for George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley cofounded the Jazz Composer ’s Orchestra with Michael Mantler, 1964, the nonprofit Jazz Composer ’s Orchestra Association (JCOA), 1966, and New Music Distribution Service founded own recording label, Watt, 1973 composed “3/4 ” for piano and orchestra, 1974, which subsequently premiered in New York City with Keith Jarrett as soloist toured Europe with the Jack Bruce band, 1975 formed the Carla Bley Band, 1977, and again toured Europe toured and recorded with the Carla Bley Band, as well as smaller ensembles, during the 1980s and early 1990s.Īwards: Grants from Cultural Council Foundation, 19, and National Endowment for the Arts, 1973 Guggenheim fellow, 1972 seven-time winner of Down Beat ’s international jazz critics ’ poll named best composer of the year, Down Beat readers ’ poll, 1984.Īddresses: c/o Ted Kurland Associates, 173 Brighton Ave., Boston, MA 02134. In 1967 vibraharpist Gary Burton recorded For the Record …īorn May 11, 1938, in Oakland, CA daughter of Emil Carl Borg (a piano teacher and choir director) and Arlene Anderson (a musician) married Paul Bley (a jazz pianist), 1959 (divorced, 1967) married Michael Mantler (a composer and trumpeter), 1967 (separated) children: Karen. ” Free-lanced as Composer and Arrangerīley first came to the attention of the general public in the late 1960s. Instead of cooking the dinner, that would be my job. “He ’d come in and say, ‘Well, I got a record date tomorrow and I need six hot ones, ’ ” she divulged in Contemporary Keyboard. During this period Bley began composing, mainly through her husband ’s prodding. They were married in 1959 and moved back to the West Coast, where they kept company with some of the most important avant-garde jazz musicians of the 1960s, notably saxophonist Ornette Coleman, bassist Charlie Haden, and trumpeter Don Cherry. It was also at Birdland that Bley met her first husband, Canadian pianist Paul Bley. In those surroundings she first began seriously listening to jazz, and the influences of the musicians she heard at the time -pianist Thelonius Monk, trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie, saxophonist John Coltrane and many others -can be detected in her compositions and solo improvisations. ’ ”īley quit school at age 15, worked briefly at a music store, and then moved to New York City, where she found a job as a cigarette girl at the famed Birdland jazz club. According to an interview in Jazz, she composed “twelve variations on ‘Onward Christian Soldiers, ’ one a march, one a waltz, a polka version, ending up with a dirge and a ‘Hallelujah Chorus. ” But even in this environment her witty and irreverent approach to music began to take shape. Bley ’s earliest musical experiences revolved around the church as she recalled Contemporary Keyboard, “I spent the first 15 years of my life playing music only for Jesus. Her mother died when Carla was eight years old, and Bley was raised in a strict religious atmosphere by her father, a choir director and piano teacher. ![]() That she accomplished her success with no formal training -and in a male-dominated field -is proof of her talent and perseverance.īley was born Carla Borg in Oakland, California, in 1938. As an entrepreneur in the recording and publishing businesses, her creativity and financial savvy have nurtured the careers of many new artists who, because of their reluctance to conform to set standards of commerciality, found difficulty securing financial support from traditional channels. As a musician and composer, her flair for the outrageous and her engaging sense of humor, combined with a profound dedication to her art and audience, have continually placed her on music ’s cutting edge. Carla Bley has been a vital force in the jazz world for more than 30 years. ![]()
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