The 1990s pull out a more whimsical backdrop streaked with the hot pinks of “On The Stage In Cages” ( Big Band Theory, 1993), the oranges of “Chicken” ( Songs With Legs, 1995) in her phenomenal trio with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and bassist Steve Swallow, and the classical tans of “End Of Vienna” ( Fancy Chamber Music, 1998). Satellite touchstones from the WATT universe include the headstrong radicalism of “Walking Batteriewoman” ( Social Studies, 1981), the gospel warmth of “More Brahms” ( Sextet, 1987), and the sensual “Fleur Carnivore.” The latter, from her 1989 album of the same name, glistens with sweat and tears, turning solos inside out until their grit becomes palpable. The following decade unwraps the gift of “Silence” on 1983’s The Ballad Of The Fallen, an ECM production from bassist Charlie Haden’s Music Liberation Orchestra that reads some of Bley’s most mournful writing with depth and passion. From that epic amalgamation of poetry, jazz, and theater comes “Why,” a masterstroke (in an album replete with them) sung with solid charisma by Linda Ronstadt. It seems there is little disagreement when it comes to shortlisting Bley’s most enduring works, and we can be sure that 1971’s Escalator Over The Hill would be one of them. And while the scope of her talents as composer and pianist can hardly be confined to a single disc, the fact that Bley herself (as every :rarum artist) chose the tracks presently collected means we can trace her fingerprints back to origin. The last couple of years she predominantly co-operates with her new partner for life, Steve Swallow, the absolutely original bass player with whom she plays heavenly, in all possible line-ups.Color me overjoyed to see a :rarum compilation dedicated to Carla Bley, especially because most of its material does not appear on ECM proper but rather on Bley’s own WATT sublabel. Drama and humor, usually within the scope of one single piece, are the components that define Bleys' work. She definitively marked her name down on the map of jazz with the opera Escalator Over the Hill. In the 60s, now married to trumpet player/composer Michael Mantler, she founded the Jazz Composers Orchestra and also began to compose music for the Liberation Music Orchestra of bass player Charlie Haden. She married pianist Paul Bley and soon started composing for him.

Bley, who was taught by her father, moved to New York in the mid-50s, where she sold cigarettes in a bar and played some piano when the opportunity was there. The youthful Maria Schneider will conduct works by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, and it is understood that the middle aged Carla Bley and her 17-headed orchestra will only play new compositions. It is a great given that two of the most talented composers are going to perform at the festival. Nowadays there are - and that is a favorable development - mostly women that call the shots in this field. In the past there were great men like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. Composers who compose long, coherent works are pretty rare in the world of jazz, where improvisations on songs that initially last no longer than three minutes are standard.

Carla bley