{"id":7503,"date":"2016-05-06T23:50:11","date_gmt":"2016-05-07T06:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7503"},"modified":"2016-05-08T23:16:59","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T06:16:59","slug":"carla-bleys-new-triumph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2016\/05\/carla-bleys-new-triumph\/","title":{"rendered":"Carla Bley’s New Triumph"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carla Bley<\/strong>, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow<\/a>, Andando el Tiempo<\/em> (ECM)<\/p>\n

As Carla Bley looks forward to her 80th birthday on May 11, ECM is releasing one of the most absorbing albums of her career. From the first notes of her three-part title suite, the Brahmsian gravity of Bley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing transfixes the listener and \"Leydemands close attention. At the piano, the clarity of Bley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musical intelligence intertwines with Andy Sheppard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saxophone mastery and Steve Swallow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformation of what he recently called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this rock and roll instrument\u00e2\u20ac\u009d—his electric bass guitar—into a medium of unprecedented subtlety. <\/p>\n

As profound as they were in the previous Bley-Sheppard-Swallow album, Trios<\/em><\/a>, Andando el Tiempo<\/em> goes a degree further into emotional depth. If the listener doesn’t know from Bley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brief liner note that the suite is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153about\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a friend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ensnarement in addiction, agonies of treatment and ultimate victory over drugs, the music nonetheless clearly speaks of fall, struggle and redemption. Her use of relaxed tango rhythms is an impotant part of what maintains the suite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s urgency. Bley attributes the title of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saints Alive\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an expression used by old ladies on the porch in the cool of the evening when they exchanged especially juicy gossip.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Juicy, perhaps, but in this telling not hilarious. The piece has a crepuscular relaxation about it. It is a long conversation between Bley and Swallow, with Sheppard interweaving concluding tenor sax commentary.<\/p>\n

On Soprano sax, Sheppard makes the most of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Naked Bridges\/Diving Brides,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which Bley wrote as a wedding present for him and his wife Sara. It incorporates phrases from Mendelssohn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wedding march with Bley harmonies that Mendelssohn might have been pleased to know. The title refers to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Peking Widow,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a poem by Paul Haines, who has collaborated with Bley on several projects. This album, which seems destined to be considered one of the year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best, is a feather in the cap of ECM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Manfred Eicher, who produced it.<\/p>\n

The album was recorded in Lugano, Switzerland, in November of last year. Our video of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Andando el Tiempo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d came from the Paris club New Morning a few days earlier. Mrs. Bley introduces the piece in French. Be prepared to listen to her slowly. In the video, the configuration of the suite’s sections differs from that on the album.<\/p>\n