Carla bley 201810/2/2023 ![]() Hopefully the new songs and the Monk arrangement will soon be recorded and released. ![]() The link is not just imagined, Bley sometimes alludes to Monk’s songs in her own, and on this concert her trio also plays Monk’s ”Misterioso” in an arrangement by Bley which almost makes it sound like a spiritual. Most of the music is played at a slow tempo which makes me think of the music of pianist and composer Thelonious Monk who also favored ballads and blues at slow tempos. They do not exclusively play new material but also some old favorites like the ballad ”Utviklingssang” and the oriental sounding “Vashkar”. It is a song in the tradition from Charles Mingus’ ”Fables of Faubus” where a politician is ridiculed by the use of mock-pompous musical motives. It was supposedly something president Donald Trump said the first time he entered the oval office in the White House. Sometimes it makes me think of French 20th century composer Erik Satie who also walked this kind of tightrope as a composer.īley can also be cunning or even write satires, as the other new piece called ”Beautiful Telephones” shows. At the same time the music has a high level of sophistication. Sheppard sounds passionate, Swallow thoughtful, and Bley herself restrained.īley is not afraid to write sentimental or simple themes which gives her music a sensibility found in romantic composers like Frederic Chopin or in some popular music. They are often hauntingly beautiful, and this trio handles them with care varying who plays the lead between them to change the character of the music. ![]() There she takes her time to develop different themes and emotions. Bley have written and recorded several small suites like ”Wildlife” and ”Andando El Tiempo”. There is a new small suite in four parts called ”Life Goes On”. They play a lot of new material which have not been recorded yet. It is even captivating to hear just two of them play, and Bley and Swallow also has recorded as a duo some decades ago. Once she wrote music for big bands and larger small groups, but for some time now she has been touring and recording with this trio.Īs she is one of the major jazz composers, the format does not lessen her music. They play all songs by Carla Bley, with just one exception. Swallow is now sitting down when he plays his electric bass, but the music is just as beautiful as it always has been. I have heard this band live three times the last six years, but now it was some years since. The Carla Bley Trio with Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard. Bley, Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard enters the stage clothed in all black looking something like graying secret agents, especially when Sheppard puts on his sunglasses, and Bley sits down at the piano tilting her head so that her characteristic bob haircut falls forward like a drape before her face. The procedure whenever the Carla Bley trio play a concert looks very much the same. ![]() The concert will be recorded by the ORF and broadcast on the Ö1 program.The Carla Bley Trio with Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard tours with new material by Bley and an original Monk arrangement. The prize-winning work will be premiered on the 4th of October 2023 in the Grand Hall of the Konzerthaus Vienna under the direction of Marin Alsop. The special challenge of placing the idioms of jazz in the context of a symphony orchestra should be taken into account. The winning piece shall succeed in transferring the impulses shaped by her into a demanding musical language of the 21st century. The task of the composition competition relates to the role of Carla Bley as a composer. This third “Spheres of a Genius” event pays tribute to Carla Bley. The subsequent competition paid homage to Leonard Bernstein. The composition competition “Spheres of a Genius” was based on the 100th Birthday of the jazz composer and pianist Thelonious Monk. RSO and JMLU are continuing their first collaboration from 2017/2018. AEC Member JAM MUSIC LAB Private University for Jazz and Popular Music Vienna, in cooperation with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna (RSO), is organising another edition of the jazz composition competition “Spheres of a Genius”.
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