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Jazz composer Carla Bley encounters the New York club scene of the 1950s.

With Donald Macleod and jazz critic and writer Kevin Le Gendre.

One of the most original voices in jazz, composer, arranger, performer and bandleader Carla Bley has been determinedly pursuing her own musical path for more than 60 years. Her back catalogue of some fifty plus recordings tell the story of a musician who's responded in her own unique style to all the current trends, from free and experimental jazz in the 60s and 70s to 80s soul, blues and R&B. In later decades, she's written for and created big bands recalling the musical landscapes of Count Basie and the Duke and in the last 20 years, she's refined a distilled, intimate style for smaller chamber ensembles, in particular performing in a trio with her life partner, bassist Steve Swallow and the British saxophonist Andy Sheppard. Little wonder then, her fellow musicians affectionately call Bley 'Countess Bleysie' and 'Bleythoven'. Featuring a selection of recordings suggested by Carla Bley, Donald Macleod and Kevin Le Gendre follow Bley's musical adventuring from her early days writing for Paul Bley and Gary Burton, to her latest album for the Carla Bley Trio, released in 2020.

Arriving in New York and still in her teens, Bley landed a job as a cigarette girl at the famous jazz club "Birdland". Having had only a rudimentary musical training to that point, the clubs became her learning ground, as she soaked up the atmosphere, listening intently to all the jazz greats, among them Count Basie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk.

King Korn
Carla Bley, piano
Steve Swallow, bass

Carla Bley/Paul Bley:
Ictus
The Paul Bley Quintet
Paul Bley, piano
Dewey Johnson, trumpet
Marshall Allen, alto sax
Eddie Gómez, double bass
Milford Graves, percussion

Donkey
Don Ellis, trumpet
Gary Peacock, bass
Paul Bley, piano
Nick Martinis, Gene Stone, drums

Ida Lupino
Paul Bley, piano

Escalator Over the Hill (excerpts)
Hotel Overture
Why
Little pony soldier
Linda Ronstadt, vocals
Carla Bley, vocals
Jack Bruce, vocals
The Jazz Composers’ Orchestra
Chris Woods, baritone saxophone
Jack Jeffer, bass trombone
Roger Dawson, bells
Perry Robinson, clarinet
Bob Carlisle, French horn
Gato Barbieri, tenor saxophone
Roswell Rudd, trombone
Enrico Rava, trumpet
John Buckingham, tuba

Jesus Maria
The Jimmy Giuffre Trio
Jimmy Giuffre, clarinet
Steve Swallow, bass
Paul Bley, piano

Producer: Johannah Smith