Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond - The Lost Chords

Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond - The Lost Chords
Жанр: Contemporary Jazz
Страна-производитель диска: Germany
Год издания диска: 2004
Издатель (лейбл): ECM Records / WATT Works
Номер по каталогу: WATT/32 | 981 7953
Аудио кодек: (MP3 + FLAC) (*.flac)
Тип рипа: tracks+.cue
Битрейт аудио: (lossy + lossless)
Продолжительность: 00:54:00
: mishka1981
: да
Треклист:
3 Blind Mice
1) 3 Blind Mice (5:33)
2) Wink Leak (5:30)
Traps
Leonard Feather
3) The Maze (4:14)
Blind Mice Redux
4) Hip Hop (7:44)
5) Tropical Depression (7:39)
6) Red (6:03)
Lost Chords
7) I (9:07)
8) II (4:23)
9) III (3:41)
Recorded October 2003 on tour in Europe
Personnel:
Carla Bley - piano
Andy Sheppard - soprano and tenor saxophones
Steve Swallow - bass
Billy Drummond - drums
Engineer: Bill Strode
Mixed November 2003 by Tom Mark and Steve Swallow at The Make Believe Ballroom, West Shokan, NY
Cover photograph: Bill Strode
Produced by Steve Swallow
Composed by Carla Bley
(P)(C) 2004 WATT Works Inc. / ECM Records GmbH

Лог создания рипа (EAC Log)

Содержание индексной карты (.CUE)

All About Jazz

Carla Bley: The Lost Chords (2004)
By JOHN KELMAN, Published: July 11, 2004
While she is perhaps better known for her large group work, including Fleur Carnivore , Goes to Church and last year's marvellous Looking for America , Carla Bley has experimented with smaller ensembles over the years, right down to duos and trios. But never, arguably, as successfully as with The Lost Chords , a pared down quartet outing recorded on tour in Europe in October, 2003. Featuring long-standing musical companions Andy Sheppard on saxophones, Steve Swallow on bass, and Billy Drummond on drums, The Lost Chords finds Bley armed with a new book of music that feels lighter than her usual fare, although it may be a result of the minimal instrumentation because the result is no less substantive than any of her larger works.
Bley is one of an elite group of modern jazz composers to emerge with a significant and consequential body of musical work, and the material on this recording expands it with pieces that range from the whimsical 3 Blind Mice to the funky Hip Hop and the light tango of Tropical Depression. Through it all she manages to create music that is at times tender, other times wryly grinning off the page.
While Bley is a composer and bandleader of no small significance, she can hardly be considered a virtuoso on piano. Still, she has the uncanny ability to choose just the right note, exactly the right chord. Her solos may be simple, but they contain distinctive themes that ring true with a personal lyricism. Her choices are often unpredictable, yet never over-intellectualized.
Bley had previously worked in a trio with Sheppard and Swallow, releasing '95's fine Songs with Legs. The addition of Drummond brings an obviously more emphatic rhythmic pulse to the proceedings, but as strong as Drummond is as a player, he never overpowers, in fact there is a certain ethereal nature to the entire quartet that lends the sometimes oblique writing a surprisingly approachable sound. Even more challenging pieces like Wink Leak, which alternates bars of five with bars of six, feel somehow natural and unforced.
While Sheppard, Swallow and Drummond are more overtly accomplished players than Bley, The Lost Chords is not about displays of musicianship. Although everyone turns in fine solos-catch Drummond's polyrhythmic musings on Traps, Sheppard's gentle yet insistent soprano on Lost Chords I, and Swallow's ever-sardonic work on Red—the emphasis is on creating a group sound, a group dynamic that differentiates it. Fine writing, exceptional playing that never loses sight of the truth of the material, and a distinctive group identity that makes this project like no other in Bley's broad body of work, The Lost Chords ultimately proves to be one of her best efforts to date.
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Carla Bley: The Lost Chords (2004)
By MARC MEYERS, Published: July 18, 2004
Carla Bley would appear to be the resident smart-aleck of the jazz world. In fact, she's a composer, arranger, and bandleader of considerable gifts and stature, and a new release by her is prima facie important. The Lost Chords finds Ms. Bley leading a highly interactive quartet in a live session that offers both depth and fun.
In any Carla Bley release, composition takes center stage. Here she takes a look, actually several looks, at Three Blind Mice, reharmonizing it, playing it in 5/4 (Wink Leak), bopping it (The Maze). She also offers a ballad with a semi-calypso feel, in Tropical Depression, and the funky Hip Hop, which features a very fine Andy Sheppard tenor saxophone solo. But the strongest composition here is the three-part Lost Chords. Part I begins with a deeply-felt statement by Sheppard, this time on soprano. Prodded by Bley's jabbing, urgent piano chords, he fashions a brilliantly intense, probing improvisation, building and sustainging tension as Swallow and Drummond provide further commentary. Part II, a swinging blues with altered changes, finds Sheppard back on tenor, while Part III revisits the aching thematic material of Part I.
The Lost Chords also focuses on Ms. Bley's pianistics. She doesn't pretend to be a virtuoso. Instead, she's concerned with the placement of each note, for maximum rhythmic emphasis, and to advance the music of the group as a whole. Her comping is also group-oriented, and she sounds like she has fully absorbed the ideas of Thelonious Monk and put them to effective and personal use.
Every member of this quartet plays with the interests of a group music as their primary concern. Sheppard, who is excellent throughout, improvises with regard to the composition and his fellow musicians, and he never resorts to mere noodling. Similarly, Swallow and Drummond are fully supportive, interactive, and swinging. Swallow is particularly effective on The Maze, and Drummond is both powerful and discreet. The Lost Chords is a first-rate addition to Carla Bley's discography.



Editorial Reviews

For those accustomed to Carla Bley's recent nudge-and-a-wink big-band efforts and corny post-lounge work, the more grounded pleasures of The Lost Chords may come as something of a surprise. Her compositions are not without their playful side: the elegantly ambulating Red, she tells us, was named after a chicken friend of hers. Recorded live, with Bley on piano, longtime partner Steve Swallow on bass, young British associate Andy Sheppard on tenor and soprano saxophone, and Billy Drummond on drums, the album radiates a newfound sense of purpose and, possibly, a new outlook on life. Judging by the fragmented melodies and loose, Monk-like structures at play here, Bley's new working band isn't just looking for lost chords, but thriving in the absence of conventional ones. Three Blind Mice, one of two suite-like pieces, recasts the kids' tune with wide harmonic contrasts, dancing exchanges, and a relaxed funk groove. As an instrumentalist, Bley mainly lends accents, deepens contrasts, and provides direction on the stylistic compass, pointing toward gospel on Hip Hop. The melodic load is carried by Sheppard, long a comer on the British scene, but here rising to a new level of feathery fluency and tonal strength. Drummond, perhaps best known for his muscle, displays a winning lightness of touch throughout. --Lloyd Sachs
Product Description
This record kicks off with a suite based on Three Blind Mice - the first tune Carla learned to play as a child. The music has a nostalgic component, and is witty also in its allusions to modern jazz history, but it swings and dances and has terrific power. **This package includes a 16-page booklet with tour photos and liner notes.
Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars - Thanks once again Carla!, July 25, 2004
By: Speedy (Fl, MO USA)
This is intelligent and quirky Carla! There are few artist left in the popular music world making real impact , with true creativity. Look no further...you will surely find creativity in this music. The music (which can be called 'jazz' if you want to narrow it's scope) on this cd will keep you glued to the cd player for months with it's