For those unaware, American jazz musician, pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader Carla Bley (1936-2023) became an icon thanks to her unconventional and original style. She brought sardonic humor and new sounds to jazz, adhering to conventions by breaking them, and making the complex seem simple and the simple seem complex.

She combined unconventional harmonies with equally unconventional, almost original instrumentation. Together with her penchant for humorous and ironic elements, this led to a unique sound aesthetic in her musical universe.

On March 14th, 1984, the Carla Bley Band was a guest at what was then Studio 10 of Norddeutscher Rundfunk. The ten-piece ensemble included Carla’s husband Michael Mantler and bassist Steve Swallow, who still remembers that spring day in Hamburg well: This is a great live recording. Michael Naura, who had been promoting jazz at NDR for many years, was a great host. He made us feel welcome and comfortable. The band was on fire, celebrating not after, but during the concert - but, as Gil Evans said, it was a party where we all had a goal in mind. It’s a blessing that these recordings of a truly sensational and extraordinary performance have survived intact on a shelf deep in the basement of the NDR archives! And they are also irrefutable proof of the power and humanity in Carla Bley’s music!

Disc 1:
1. La Paloma
2. Talking Hearts
3. Joyful Noise
4. The Lord is Listening’ To Ya, Hallelujah!
5. Light Or Dark
6. Misterioso

With a wink in every bar, giving the whole concert a full sense of imagination and originality, free spirit and humor, Bley opens the first disc on the smoothly sultry La Paloma and the organically cultured Talking Hearts and then we get the playfully flighty Joyful Noise, the structured magnificence of The Lord is Listening’ To Ya, Hallelujah!, before both the brightly funky Light Or Dark and the joyfully soulful Misterioso are brought forth.

Disc 2:
7. Venus Fly Trap
8. Nu Derection
9. Ending It
10. Starting Again / Ups And Downs
11. Battleship
12. Copyright Royalties

The second is disc opens on the light, breezy and old school-flavored Venus Fly Trap and the frenetically charged Nu Derection, and they are then in turn backed seamlessly by the dulcetly crafted Ending It, the free-flowing ambiance of Starting Again / Ups And Downs, the set rounding out on the first of their dessert songs, the informatively introduced jam fest of Battleship (a story about the war between England and Argentina on the Falkland Islands), closing on the low slung and languishing beauty of Copyright Royalties.

Official Purchase Link