This listening log is dedicated to two miniatures written in 1976 by American composer Carla Bley. I had wanted to do something that would, at least loosely, belong in the cabinet of “jazz compositions” and picking something from the vast output from Carla Bley seemed like a really good starting point. These two compositions are quite different from other pieces that I’ve looked at so far, in particular while they are notated for piano, they have been variously reworked for different instrumentations at the discretion of the performer.
Carla Bley (b. 1936) is an American composer, arranger, pianist, and conductor who has been active since the mid-1950s. Bley’s compositions have covered a vast amount of styles, from the avant-garde to gospel/Americana, and these have been performed and recorded by some of the leading musicians and ensembles in jazz. Her musical output is quite vast and varied, but it includes full composition and arrangements for big-band groups and orchestras as well as compositions that provide a framework for improvisation. The two short pieces that form the basis of this blog fall into the latter category: two unusual miniatures that encourage improvisation and development from the performer. Nothing more than a melody lead-sheet, no chords, and not always time.
And Now, the Queen
Surprisingly, this might be the more tonal of the two pieces in this entry. The lead sheet below contains one main thematic idea, which is not developed any further. Some form of a Gbmaj7 tonality is implied, but there’s a lack of context here; furthermore, the sections between the theme statements seem out of place (tonally) from the main theme.
The piece has time signature changes in every measure (5/4, 7/4, 6/4, 5/4), though I have seen this written as a continuous bar without lines or divisions. The reason why there are time signatures in this piece remains a mystery to me, as it does not appear to make a difference whether anyone is counting or not. Curiously, the gaps that are reserved for the drums to fill in are notated as both written notes and marked with annotations.
In the recording above a more detailed analysis could be done of the improvisation and how it relates (or departs from) the originally composed idea, but that is not the point of this log post.
Violin
Probably inspired by free-jazz, Violin has little harmonic context for which to guide improvisation around the main idea of the song. The improviser has to extract information, in whatever format possible, from what is exposed and craft from that come-what-may. The lack of a clear harmonic direction in the piece below (no chords, no leading tones, no progressions/cadences, etc.) calls for the prominence of perhaps a melodic idea, or exposing and minimal rhythmic development. In the recording below the trio plays with fragments of the written music while improvising before re-stating the theme (all in under 3 minutes).
Aside from the music itself, I like the way the piece below is notated. There is no time signature, there are no bar lines, and there are thick horizontal lines to indicate the duration of longer held notes . The piece says rubato, which implies that the held notes could be an unspecified length of time, interrupted only by the perceived end of the line. Similarly, vertical lines are added for notes that are to be played together, similar to what many pianists do to aid in hand combinations.
Recordings: Bley, C., Bley, P. 1965. "And Now, the Queen" Alone Again. New York: Improvising Artists. [online] Bley, C., Bley, P. 1965. "Violin" Closer. New York: ESP Disk. [online] Sheet music: Bley, C. 1976. And Now the Queen [Online] Bley, C. 1976. Violin. [online]