It was said that Paul Bley could make a concert grand sound like an upright. That’s not true of Open, To Love, which sounds as sumptuous as its contemporary ECM studio classics, Chick Corea’s Piano Improvisations and Keith Jarrett’s Facing You. The 1973 album features songs by Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, plus two Paul Bley contrafacts (compositions built on the chord sequences of existing songs) and is mostly reflective. The highlight is Carla Bley’s “Ida Lupino”, dedicated to the British born Hollywood actor and film maker. Bley was a professed “nonpractiser” but the arpeggiated rolls here must have been practised – even if over years of performances. This is probably the greatest Bley interpretation of a gorgeous, enchanting ballad that he made his own. “Started” and “Harlem” are in the familiar Cool School tradition of contrafacts, in this case of the standards “I Can’t Get Started” and “Drop Me Off In Harlem”.

On Floater And Syndrome, unfortunately, Bley really is on a – not great – upright piano, with Steve Swallow (bass) and Pete La Roca (drums). La Roca is a great but underrated drummer, whose finest hour was on Sonny Rollins’s 1959 In Stockholm set. Poor piano tone and less than stellar recording quality are the main issues with these two earlier albums, recorded in 1962–63 but only released in the 1980s by Savoy Jazz. Compositions are by Paul Bley and Carla Bley, and again these yield both free and lyrical approaches.

Sound aside, results are still variable. Carla’s comments, quoted in the sleevenotes, help explain why. Composing for her husband “wasn’t my idea. I had my own kind of music where I wasn’t writing for him and “Ida Lupino” would come out… mostly he wanted stuff to play free on... I thought free improvising could be… fun to play. But it needed something to ground it a little bit.” The tracks from the later session are more rewarding, especially the ballads, which are contrafacts. Andy Hamilton