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Paul Bley

Live at the Hillcrest Club 1958
This record marks a turning point in jazz history. It may be the earliest recorded example of what Ornette Coleman later called "free jazz," and it represents the first rumblings of the revolutionary movement which eventually shifted jazz thinking away from bebop. This double LP includes the complete show recorded live at The Hillcrest Club of Los Angeles in 1958.
Play Annette Peacock, Revisited
By 1965, Paul Bley had settled on the trio format, and touring Europe revealed a warmer reception for music that employed chordless improvisations, three-way rhythmic counterpoint, unfamiliar melodic constructs, and malleable song form. But there was an equally momentous conceptual change in the group’s material, as the adventurous pieces by Carla Bley were gradually being replaced by those of Paul’s new partner, Annette Peacock. - Art Lange
Introducing Paul Bley
*Limited edition of 500 copies.* Originally released in 1953 on Charles Mingus's own "Debut" label, this is Paul Bley's historical debut album. Here the young talented and technically strong pianist appears as leader of a super-trio with nothing but Mingus himself on bass and Art Blakey on drums. This is a beautifully varied set including both  renditions of classic standards such as "I can't get Started", and Bley's early originals like "Opus 1" and "Spontaneous Combustion" This is where you ca…
Improvisie
Bamboo present the first ever reissue of Paul Bley's Improvisie, originally released in 1971. Recorded Live March 26th, 1971 at Club B14 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Improvisie is a part of the 1971 trilogy of Paul Bley and Annette Peacock's combined experimental recorded work. Together with recent reissues of 1971's The Bley Synthesizer Show (BAM 7020CD/LP) and 1972's Dual Unity (BAM 7018CD/LP), Improvisie is taken from a compelling period for two iconic figures of the free jazz movement, and the…
Bremen '66
** 2021 Stock ** The young Paul Bley earned his spurs playing with legends including Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Jimmy Giuffre, Ornette Coleman and Bill Evans. As the 1960s progressed, he increasingly embraced the avant-garde, with arguably his greatest successes coming in the piano trio format. Originally broadcast on Nordewestradio in the autumn of 1966, and featuring material by Bley and his wife Carla, this fiery set typifies his approach at the time, and is accompanied by backgr…
Touching
A magnificent document of the music of the young Paul Bley. Recorded at the end of 1965 with Kent Carter - double bass and Barry Altschul - drums, "Touching" shows the already advanced musical conception of someone who over the years will establish himself as one of the greatest pianists in the history of Jazz. Between original pieces and compositions by Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, Bley's music unfolds with an autonomous step and extreme originality compared to most of the avant-garde pianis…
Touching & Blood 1965/66
Paul Bley is a master of the piano trio. He showed new and different ways of exploring the complex triangular geometry of what has arguably become jazz’s signature formation. Bley’s early recording with Charles Mingus and Art Blakey promised great things to come. He emerged more fully as part of Jimmy Giuffre’s innovative trio with Steve Swallow, but it was with his own trios of the mid to late 1960s, with drummer Barry Altschul and bassists Kent Carter and Mark Levinson, that he really began to…
Graz Live 1961
After introducing his new trio with pianist Paul Bley and double bassist Steve Swallow in two 1961 albums on Verve, clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre embarked on a tour of Europe, this recently discovered, well-recorded concert in Graf, Austria the perfect example of his unique concepts yielding intensely focused, harmonically challenging, rhythmically abstract, and exquisite chamber jazz.
Closer
When Oscar Peterson moved from Montréal to New York in 1949, then-17-year-old Paul Bley took over Peterson's residency at the Alberta Lounge on Peterson's recommendation; in his 20s, Bley played with Charlie Parker. Bley incorporated maverick pianist Lennie Tristano's approach to improvisation and collaborated with Charles Mingus, and in 1958 in Los Angeles famously put together a band with Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. His move into free improvisation in the gro…
The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show
LP version. Bamboo present the first ever reissue of Paul Bley's The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show, originally released in 1971. This stunning album was recorded over three sessions in New York City on December 9th, 1970, January 21st, 1971, and March 9th, 1971. The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show produces new songs and tough translations of previous works from Mr. Joy while joining the likes of other seminal works in 1972's Dual Unity (BAM 7018CD/LP), 1971's Improvisie (BAM 7019CD/LP), and Bley-Pea…
Bremen & Stuttgart
The Jimmy Giuffre 3 with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow only lasted about a year, but their work, which ranged from blues to tempo-less group improvisation, became a major influence on a wide variety of subsequent music from 'soft jazz' to 'hard-core' free improvisation. This double CD reissues their only known well-recorded concerts, originally released in 1992/3 on hat ART 6071/2. In addition, there are six previously unissued performances from the Bremen concert, three trios and three piano…
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