Thanks all for the great Paul Bley! I truly appreciate it as I am almost embarrassed to admit that I was only marginally familiar with this great player’s music. I have pretty much immersed myself in his recordings over the last couple of days. That “If I Should Lose You” is possibly the most beautiful version of the tune I have heard. Thanks, Alex!
Listening to the clips posted I kept thinking Keith Jarrett, Keith Jarrett. Keith Jarrett, but without the hard to explain annoying quality that causes me to have a love-hate feeling about Jarrett’s playing. VERY similar emphasis and way with motivic development, but without the pretense that I often hear in Jarrett’s playing. I came across these comments in a review of Bley’s “Footloose” by Ethan Iverson (critic and pianist in The Bad Plus trio):
**** Because it was the first album with Bley at full power, it’s possible that Footloose! is Bley’s most influential recording. It certainly made a big impression on certain pianists the time: Most famously, Keith Jarrett has never denied his debt to Bley and Footloose! in particular. This natural progression is somewhat controversial. Insiders commonly snark that Jarrett should give Bley royalties, and perhaps Bley himself is a bit bitter about how Jarrett became such a superstar using some of the tools Bley invented. After hearing Jarrett’s 2000 free jazz release Inside Out, Bley joked to me that “Now, after all these years, Keith has finally figured out how to sound exactly like I did in 1964.” ****
https://youtu.be/-h4i9JjfFXA
Very wide scope. As Schubert pointed out, he covered a lot of ground:
https://youtu.be/w3xaFqyKSpo
Listening to the clips posted I kept thinking Keith Jarrett, Keith Jarrett. Keith Jarrett, but without the hard to explain annoying quality that causes me to have a love-hate feeling about Jarrett’s playing. VERY similar emphasis and way with motivic development, but without the pretense that I often hear in Jarrett’s playing. I came across these comments in a review of Bley’s “Footloose” by Ethan Iverson (critic and pianist in The Bad Plus trio):
**** Because it was the first album with Bley at full power, it’s possible that Footloose! is Bley’s most influential recording. It certainly made a big impression on certain pianists the time: Most famously, Keith Jarrett has never denied his debt to Bley and Footloose! in particular. This natural progression is somewhat controversial. Insiders commonly snark that Jarrett should give Bley royalties, and perhaps Bley himself is a bit bitter about how Jarrett became such a superstar using some of the tools Bley invented. After hearing Jarrett’s 2000 free jazz release Inside Out, Bley joked to me that “Now, after all these years, Keith has finally figured out how to sound exactly like I did in 1964.” ****
https://youtu.be/-h4i9JjfFXA
Very wide scope. As Schubert pointed out, he covered a lot of ground:
https://youtu.be/w3xaFqyKSpo