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Paul Bley

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Paul Bley was born in 1932 in Montreal and became a Canadian jazz pianist who made his name through his work in free jazz. As a child he played the violin, but he switched to piano. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1953 he brought Charlie Parker to the Montreal Jazz Workshop, where they recorded together. The album Introducing Paul Bley from 1954 was his debut. In the 1950s he played in trios and with, among others, Lester Young, Chet Baker and Ben Webster, and in Los Angeles his quintet featured Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.

Music and breakthrough

In the 1960s Bley played in a trio with Jimmy Giuffre and Steve Swallow that combined chamber music and free jazz. In 1964 he was involved in the founding of the Jazz Composers Guild in New York. In 1969 he gave the first live concert on Moog and ARP synthesizers in New York. In 1972 Open, to Love appeared, his first solo record for ECM. On Improvising Artists, the label he founded in 1974, he released the album Jaco, the debut of Pat Metheny on electric guitar alongside Jaco Pastorius on bass.

Influence

In 1955 Bley said that he wanted to write music without a chord centre. He was influential for trio playing and for jazz with electronics. He died in Florida in 2016.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Open, to Love. Notice how Bley creates space with the piano alone, with silence between the notes and no fixed rhythm.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists