Live! - Carla Bley | Jazzbo Notes

Dec

2

Live! - Carla Bley

≡ Category: 1980s, Essential, Progressive Big Band, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

JAZZBO NOTES ESSENTIAL RECORDING

Rating:

Not everybody is going to love Live! (issued on the ECM label) the way I do. I think it all depends on your sense of humor.

Take the opener, Blunt Object. The first time I heard that tune, my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. After listening to it dozens of times, I still smile.

Bley composed and arranged the tune as a study of the diminished scale, and as a knowing wink to crime films of the thirties, which often used diminished scales in their scores.

Bley has a particular affinity for brass instruments, especially the ones in the lower register, like tubas and trombones. She has Earl McIntyre play a wonderful trombone solo on Blunt Object, where’s he forced to play bebop lines over the changes, which is pretty tough for a trombonist to pull off. But what really makes the tune for me is the arrangement.

The tune starts out with a high register solo from bassist Steve Swallow. Rhythm is paramount. The melody, such as it is, is a series of blasts from the brass section, while drummer D. Sharpe holds down the groove. The way the tune is structured, D. Sharpe constantly has to play drum fills, which he does with an unseemly gusto. Carla Bley makes the absurdity complete by laying cheesy horror movie organ riffs on top of the whole thing.

People who like their jazz serious will not be amused.

Bley continues to wink at the audience with The Lord Is Listenin’ To Ya, Hallelujah!, a jokey soul parade that would be home on Saturday Night Live! Again, she features Earl McIntyre playing the melody and soloing on trombone, which he does magnificently.

Time and Us is the sort of thing you could imagine hearing in a department store like Macy’s and in fact, I did hear it once there. It’s kind of a faux nostalgic exercise.

If you’re starting to detect a theme here, you’re right. Bley doesn’t appear to take much seriously. She reflexively pokes fun at everything. That doesn’t make the music on Live! bad, but it does kind of give it a snotty tone. Personally, I think it’s hilarious.

When Bley composes a ballad like Still In The Room that is supposed to tug the heartstrings, the insincere bathos reminds me of Bill Murray’s lounge lizard rendition of the theme from Star Wars. Actually, Still In The Room starts out as a ballad, with the melody plays by bassist Steve Swallow. Eventually, it morphs into a peppy romp before settling back into the original smarm. If you’re taking it seriously at all, it’s guaranteed to make you squirm.

On the other hand, even curmudgeons might like Real Life Hits, which has a really cool head, which is performed by the whole band. For the solos, the composition shifts into a vamp, which occasionally transforms itself into different keys.

I have to admit, the final tune, Song Sung Long, tests even my patience. The minimalistic melody is taken over a hipshaking vamp, which is also used for the solos. It’s almost insultingly simple, which is probably the point, if you consider the title of the tune. It’s mostly an excuse for the band members to take turns in the spotlight. My guess is that is was probably fun for the members of the audience, but Song Song Long is the one tune on Live! that doesn’t really stand up to repeated listenings.

For that, I take 1/2 star off of my rating. Provided you have the peculiar sense of humor necessary to enjoy it, Live! is a blast.