solo piano Paul Bley
Open, to Love
ECM Records/Trio Records (Japan) 1973
PA-7073 (LP) w/insert.
sleeve : VG+(dirts)
media : EX-/EX(some slightly noise. some slightly hairlines that does not affect to sounds)
Released on ECM in 1973, this solo album is by Paul Bley, one of Canada’s foremost jazz pianists and a central figure in New York’s loft-jazz scene. Active since the 1950s, Bley performed with the Ornette Coleman Quartet and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, while also leaving behind numerous masterpieces with his own groups. Alongside two of his own compositions, Bley interprets pieces by his former wife Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, both of whose music he would revisit on many subsequent recordings. The result is a superb solo performance permeated throughout by the singular emotional sensibility that defines his playing. The entire album is excellent, but A2 is particularly captivating: an emotionally rich interpretation of “Ida Lupino,” also featured on Carla Bley’s classic Dinner Music. Equally compelling is B1, which Bley later revisited with a group on the 1986 album Fragment. Japanese pressing released as part of the Trio Jazz Mania series.
A2: Ida Lupino
B1: Open, to Love