CARLA BLEY TRIO
Pizza Express Soho London - 1st June 2017
Pizza Express Soho London - 1st June 2017
Carla Bley: piano; Andy Sheppard: tenor and soprano saxophones; Steve Swallow: electric bass
‘She’s so elusive and ever changing.’ Steve Swallow once said about Carla Bley: He was right of course. The music recently has become more so.
Carla Bley used to talk more at her concerts but over the years she has become more reserved, more private in her public appearances. Bley does not live in the past and re-cycle past successes but her fey humour of the early 80s has been replaced by a self-deprecating wit that denigrates her piano playing. Nevertheless, the past was rich.
You can’t go back but there are regrets. No more the wonderful rasping trombone of Gary Valente, the piercing brassiness of Lew Soloff, the idiosyncratic Kurt Weill crossed with Satie mischief melodies are no more. Over the years she has played at the Roundhouse, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scott's, the Bracknell Festival. Probably the Pizza Express is the most harmonious room for this trio. The fiorentinos and veneziana’s and primavera risottos were consumed quietly; the peperosso was sipped silently. Steve Swallow almost contradicted the opening announcement from the Pizza Express compere who wanted us to provide a Wigmore Hall ambiance for the trio. Swallow assured us that it was OK to rattle a few knives. But the cutlery was muted so that everyone could enjoy the turned-inward music that Bley has written for herself. She knows the audience is there and she doesn't mind if we listen.
‘She’s so elusive and ever changing.’ Steve Swallow once said about Carla Bley: He was right of course. The music recently has become more so.
Carla Bley used to talk more at her concerts but over the years she has become more reserved, more private in her public appearances. Bley does not live in the past and re-cycle past successes but her fey humour of the early 80s has been replaced by a self-deprecating wit that denigrates her piano playing. Nevertheless, the past was rich.
You can’t go back but there are regrets. No more the wonderful rasping trombone of Gary Valente, the piercing brassiness of Lew Soloff, the idiosyncratic Kurt Weill crossed with Satie mischief melodies are no more. Over the years she has played at the Roundhouse, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Ronnie Scott's, the Bracknell Festival. Probably the Pizza Express is the most harmonious room for this trio. The fiorentinos and veneziana’s and primavera risottos were consumed quietly; the peperosso was sipped silently. Steve Swallow almost contradicted the opening announcement from the Pizza Express compere who wanted us to provide a Wigmore Hall ambiance for the trio. Swallow assured us that it was OK to rattle a few knives. But the cutlery was muted so that everyone could enjoy the turned-inward music that Bley has written for herself. She knows the audience is there and she doesn't mind if we listen.
Andy Sheppard has been an accomplished musician for a long time. Now, he is more than that; it would have happened without Bley but Bley’s influence, he is the favoured tenor player for Bley, has in some ways shaped the player that Sheppard has become. The challenge of being able, over and over, to wind his way through the intricate, exquisite melodies must have shaped his musical thinking. Sheppard’s new music has moved into more complex and yet simple areas that Bley has explored recently. All throughout both sets, Sheppard amazed the audience with his playing. He explores, gently and completely, the whole range of the tenor saxophone in a way that few players have ever done. He compels attention like a good teacher not by roaring and shouting down but almost whispering. The breath becomes part of the music, he experiments with single notes, sly runs decreasing or intensifying in volume as they go. Some of the playing makes you smile; some makes you gasp in admiration. The duet with bass and the duet with piano reveal a sensitivity that has always been there in Sheppard’s playing but now refined to a high level. At present, there is no one remotely like Andy Sheppard. He fits into this trio like a well mitred joint.
Bley crouches for the greater part of the evening over the keyboard like a young girl trying to get her notes right. She is tentative almost as though she has never come across the music before, even though she wrote every note. You will her to succeed.
‘Rut’ opened the evening and the exquisite ‘Lawns’ was the encore. In between we had the relatively new ‘Andando el Tiempo which was the heart of the evening. It is in three movements, about addiction: ‘Sin Fin ‘;’Potacio de Guaya,’ the ‘Camino al Volver’. The music dips into Latin American rhythms and syncopated descending runs with a mood of the piece that shifts throughout and finishes optimistically with the return from addiction. We also had the small suite, ‘Copy Cat’, with three movements (After You; Follow The Leader; Copycat). ‘Beautiful Telephones’ is a piece inspired by Donald Trump. Apparently when Trump entered the White House the phones were one of the first things that he noticed. What Bley wants to convey in isolating that trite comment is open to conjecture. The music had a number of subtle musical allusions. As Steve Swallow said: she is elusive.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Bley crouches for the greater part of the evening over the keyboard like a young girl trying to get her notes right. She is tentative almost as though she has never come across the music before, even though she wrote every note. You will her to succeed.
‘Rut’ opened the evening and the exquisite ‘Lawns’ was the encore. In between we had the relatively new ‘Andando el Tiempo which was the heart of the evening. It is in three movements, about addiction: ‘Sin Fin ‘;’Potacio de Guaya,’ the ‘Camino al Volver’. The music dips into Latin American rhythms and syncopated descending runs with a mood of the piece that shifts throughout and finishes optimistically with the return from addiction. We also had the small suite, ‘Copy Cat’, with three movements (After You; Follow The Leader; Copycat). ‘Beautiful Telephones’ is a piece inspired by Donald Trump. Apparently when Trump entered the White House the phones were one of the first things that he noticed. What Bley wants to convey in isolating that trite comment is open to conjecture. The music had a number of subtle musical allusions. As Steve Swallow said: she is elusive.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
