carla bley

"Carla Bley was born in Oakland, California, as Carla Borg in 1936. Her father began giving her music lessons when she was three years old. Her musical education ended at the age of eight. Her formal education stopped entirely when she dropped out of high school after completing the tenth grade.

During her adolescence Carla was drawn to jazz and moved to New York City to be closer to the musicians she admired. She resumed her musical education by working as a cigarette girl at the notorious Birdland jazz club, where she was able to hear the greatest jazz musicians of the day. She met pianist Paul Bley and eventually relocated to Los Angeles, where Paul and his quartet had a steady gig at the Hillcrest Club. She began to write music. When saxophonist Ornette Coleman came on the scene in the mid-fifties, Paul Bley immediately hired him and Carla was exposed nightly to ‘free’ playing, a powerful influence that was to affect her writing for many years.

In the early sixties Paul and Carla returned to New York. Soon George Russell, Jimmy Giuffre, Tony Williams and others began to play and record her compositions. Carla was a member of The Jazz Composer’s Guild and met composer Michael Mantler at the meetings. They formed a group called The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, and soon became personally involved; she left Paul Bley and moved in with Michael Mantler.

At the end of the sixties Gary Burton recorded Carla’s first extended work, "A Genuine Tong Funeral". Shortly after, Charlie Haden asked her to arrange and write for "The Liberation Music Orchestra". Her next major work, with words by Paul Haines, "Escalator Over The Hill", was recorded on the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra Association’s label, JCOA, and featured Don Preston. Soon she and Michael Mantler founded The New Music Distribution Service, which distributed independent recordings."

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