Carla Bley, Sheppard, Swallow Life Goes On

A striking album of new music from pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow is now in its 25th year. Individual associations among the players go back much further: bassist Swallow first recorded music by Carla in 1961. So when Bley says “Life Goes On”, a lot of life is alluded to.  The album, realized in the Auditorio Stelio Molo Studio in Lugano in May 2019, with Manfred Eicher producing, takes the form of three suites. The title piece begins as a stoical blues, at first melancholic then hopeful. “Beautiful Telephones”, inspired by a US president’s first observation on entering the Oval Office, has plenty of Bley’s dark wit. And “Copycat” explores the notion of call-and-response in fresh ways as the improvisers continue each other’s thoughts. Throughout, Carla’s distinctive piano, with its hints of Monk and Satie, is beautifully framed by Swallow’s eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard’s yearning saxes. This trio has a unique collective sound, reflecting – as The Telegraph recently noted – “musical mastery of a rare order”.

TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 5/5 Sonics in the April 2020 Issue of The Absolute Sound! One Of TAS' Ten Best Jazz Albums of 2020!

"If there's an air of resignation to the way pianist/composer Bley has titled the movements on her opening suite ' "Life Goes On", "On", "And On", "And Then one Day", - it is belied throughout this gently gripping album by Bley's indelible wit and unsinkable sanguinity. Both are evident in her pithy liner notes, her quotes of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "The Star Spangled Banner" in the "Beautiful Telephones" suite (inspired by remarks made by the current president during his first week in the White House), her play on call-and-response in the closing suite, "Copy Cat", and the unfrantic flow of her elegant melodies and soothing harmonies. The album title could reference Bley's career (more than five decades of recording), her age (she turns 82 in May 2020), or the longevity of this uncannily simpatico trio (25 years and counting). Touching here on the blues and there on tango, now buoyant, now contemplative, the music is richly poignant but never lugubrious, bent but not sharply angular, spacious and light but never ungrounded. Swallow's unique electric bass sound and Sheppard's stately tenor and soprano sax tones, heard in ample solo space, seamlessly lock in with Bley's eccentric phrasing as the band sublimely plays on."" - Derk Richardson, The Absolute Sound Magazine, April 2020

"Musical mastery of a rare order" is how The Telegraph recently described the unique, collective sound of Carla Bley's long-standing trio. The striking album of three suites of new music begins with a stoical blues, at first melancholic then hopeful. The second piece features plenty of Bley's dark wit, and the third explores the notion of call-and-response. Throughout, Carla's distinctive piano is beautifully framed by Swallow's eloquent, elegant bass guitar and Sheppard's yearning saxes.