Carla Bley Trio

»Carla Bley is the most monstrous chameleon in the jazz world. And a colossal source of irritation,« published the FAZ in an article marking the 70th birthday of the composer and pianist, who was born Lovella May Borg in Oakland, California in 1936. The daughter of a church musician, self-taught, has devoted herself to hypermodern, timeless jazz with absolutely no boundaries since the 1950s. She started composing for her husband of the time, Paul Bley, while she later played with icons of free jazz like Pharoah Sanders and Steve Lacy, as well as in Charlie Haden’s leftist avant-garde big band Liberation Music Orchestra. For her trio of some 25 years with saxophonist Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow on drums, Carly Bley, who relocated to New York before she was 20, also writes compositions that are often asymmetrical and unpredictable, subverting common jazz norms. Her songs are full of great drama and profound humour.