CARLA BLEY / ANDY SHEPPARD / STEVE SWALLOW - Andando el Tiempo
ECM 477 9711
Carla Bley: piano; Andy Sheppard: tenor and soprano saxophones; Steve Swallow: bass
Recorded November 2015
The stance of Carla Bley has always been difficult to discern: allusive, tinged with gentle mocking humour. Not now, this latest music is very much heart-on-sleeve.
The three part suite is about the stages in the recovery from addiction: the endless medication; the sorrow and pain of those affected; the eventual recovery. Fall, struggle and redemption. Bley writes: ‘It was written as I watched a friend go through the condition and come out the other end.’ Bley’s use of her own tangled tango rhythms is an important element underlying the musical conversations in’ Andando el Tiempo’.
‘Saints Alive!’ is, ‘an expression used by old ladies on the porch in the cool of the evening when they exchanged especially juicy gossip.’ The piece has an end of the day relaxation about it. The three voices of the trio interweave with comments.
‘Naked Bridges/Diving Brides,’ Bley wrote as a wedding present for Andy Sheppard and his wife Sara and includes phrases from Mendelssohn’s wedding march. The title refers to ‘Peking Widow,’ a poem by Paul Haines, who collaborated with Bley in the past on her long work: ‘Escalator Over The Hill’.
The highlight of the album is the work of Andy Sheppard. Sheppard has grown during his twenty year association with Bley into one of the greatest saxophone players. The range of expressions, the nuances that he draws out of his instrument are impressive; he can move subtly from wistful to assertive to melancholy. The way that he builds to the climax on ‘Sin Fin’ is both gripping and dramatic: seems not to matter whether he is playing tenor or soprano; all part of a sound continuum.
‘Potación de Guaya’ has some of Bley’s best playing. She has always denigrated her pianistic skills but here the blend of piano with Swallow’s guitar is exquisite. Swallow has made an instrument that can be bludgeoning into an instrument that can be restrained and full of resonant depths.
‘Camino al Volver’ has intriguing figures with notes that soar up the keyboard. Swallow has commented that Bley’s writing forces him into new directions. Dipping into reflex cliches, just not possible. The assertive ending of the piece seems to suggest that recovery from addiction is complete.
It is not usual for Bley to write album notes; it is even more unusual for the notes to be so specific. The listener has to decide if the words illuminate the music or merely obscure.
Bley is a remarkable musician and this is a remarkable album. Her creativity is not following a conventional course. The last Trio album looked afresh at works from her past; this album is wholly new and she creates pieces in a way that she has not done before.
Work is on-going: later this month she is going to Germany to rehearse and perform her oratorio for big band and boys choir: ‘La Leçon Française’. In July she tours Europe with the trio. Later this year she works with the Music Liberation Orchestra.
The CD is produced by Manfred Eicher of ECM. In the past, Bley recorded for her own label and used ECM to distribute. The quality of the recording in a studio in Lugano is sparklingly clear. Pure ECM.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
ECM 477 9711
Carla Bley: piano; Andy Sheppard: tenor and soprano saxophones; Steve Swallow: bass
Recorded November 2015
The stance of Carla Bley has always been difficult to discern: allusive, tinged with gentle mocking humour. Not now, this latest music is very much heart-on-sleeve.
The three part suite is about the stages in the recovery from addiction: the endless medication; the sorrow and pain of those affected; the eventual recovery. Fall, struggle and redemption. Bley writes: ‘It was written as I watched a friend go through the condition and come out the other end.’ Bley’s use of her own tangled tango rhythms is an important element underlying the musical conversations in’ Andando el Tiempo’.
‘Saints Alive!’ is, ‘an expression used by old ladies on the porch in the cool of the evening when they exchanged especially juicy gossip.’ The piece has an end of the day relaxation about it. The three voices of the trio interweave with comments.
‘Naked Bridges/Diving Brides,’ Bley wrote as a wedding present for Andy Sheppard and his wife Sara and includes phrases from Mendelssohn’s wedding march. The title refers to ‘Peking Widow,’ a poem by Paul Haines, who collaborated with Bley in the past on her long work: ‘Escalator Over The Hill’.
The highlight of the album is the work of Andy Sheppard. Sheppard has grown during his twenty year association with Bley into one of the greatest saxophone players. The range of expressions, the nuances that he draws out of his instrument are impressive; he can move subtly from wistful to assertive to melancholy. The way that he builds to the climax on ‘Sin Fin’ is both gripping and dramatic: seems not to matter whether he is playing tenor or soprano; all part of a sound continuum.
‘Potación de Guaya’ has some of Bley’s best playing. She has always denigrated her pianistic skills but here the blend of piano with Swallow’s guitar is exquisite. Swallow has made an instrument that can be bludgeoning into an instrument that can be restrained and full of resonant depths.
‘Camino al Volver’ has intriguing figures with notes that soar up the keyboard. Swallow has commented that Bley’s writing forces him into new directions. Dipping into reflex cliches, just not possible. The assertive ending of the piece seems to suggest that recovery from addiction is complete.
It is not usual for Bley to write album notes; it is even more unusual for the notes to be so specific. The listener has to decide if the words illuminate the music or merely obscure.
Bley is a remarkable musician and this is a remarkable album. Her creativity is not following a conventional course. The last Trio album looked afresh at works from her past; this album is wholly new and she creates pieces in a way that she has not done before.
Work is on-going: later this month she is going to Germany to rehearse and perform her oratorio for big band and boys choir: ‘La Leçon Française’. In July she tours Europe with the trio. Later this year she works with the Music Liberation Orchestra.
The CD is produced by Manfred Eicher of ECM. In the past, Bley recorded for her own label and used ECM to distribute. The quality of the recording in a studio in Lugano is sparklingly clear. Pure ECM.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
