TT 314: Carla Bley
The Passing of a Legend
(Photo of Carla and me at Jessica Felix’s house taken by the late Ruth Cameron in 2019.)
Good NYT obit by Nate Chinen.
One of my favorite quotes is from the time I got Carla Bley on the record for a substantial game of word association.
Her quote is, “Nothing means anything. Nothing proves anything. You can be totally overeducated or totally undereducated and still be useful in the world of music.”
In context it lands even stronger, when she’s talking about Lew Soloff, Charlie Haden, and Scott LaFaro:
Carla Bley: Lew Soloff is a musical creature of the top tribe. He was a real musician. I got a lot of flak for that, using a guy that had played with Blood, Sweat & Tears. That was my favorite trumpet player, and I stood up for him, for record after record.
Ethan Iverson: Well, he plays great with you. I actually think he sounds better with you than on his own records.
CB: Oh definitely. Oh, he had no idea what to do on his own.
He said, “People say I don’t have a style, well, that’s not true. My style is I can play everything and anything.”
I said, “That’s not a style.”
And he’d say, “Yes, it is. That’s my style. I can play anything and everything.”
So I said, “Well, you’re not going to get very far in the musical world without some kind of a defect.”
He said, “What do you mean?”
Anyway, I still will stand up for him. A true musician. Lou was all chops, but I could hear through the chops to the real music. It’s not something that disqualifies you from my book of favorite people. If you have great chops and you’re a real musician, it’s wonderful.
It’s even better than having poor chops and being a wonderful musician. Like Charlie Haden would be an example. He called himself “Whole Note Haden.” He just wants to play a whole bunch of country songs. He just wants to play one note at a time, really slowly. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but still.
Charlie and Scott LaFaro were living together when I was in LA. They were roommates, and it would be night and day. And they were both great.
Nothing means anything. Nothing proves anything. You can be totally overeducated or totally undereducated and still be useful in the world of music.
Carla’s generation is basically gone now. A lot of her tribe (Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Paul Bley, Charlie Haden, Dewey Redman, Paul Motian, etc) made my favorite records.
Thank you, Carla. We will miss you.
The interview was part of the background for a detailed 2018 overview at the New Yorker Culture Desk: “A Lifetime of Carla Bley.”
In retrospect I’m amazed that the New Yorker let me get away with such a long insider essay concerning the development of modern jazz.
Both Carla and Steve Swallow told me they liked this New Yorker piece.
Further background can be found at my casual overview of the complete Bley discography “Carla, Carla, Carla, Carla, Carla.”
She also let me reprint her fabulous essay, “Accomplishing Escalator Over the Hill.”
Considering I never knew Carla, I’m surprised at how much I’m hurting at her loss. Gary Burton had a big impact on my listening as a teenager, and discovering Carla through A Genuine Tong Funeral was an ear opener at a time when there were about 100 ear openers coming through weekly. There was always something new and refreshing to hear in her music, not to mention pure pleasure. Hopefully, her Art (and all the wonderful things she had to say about it, in your interviews and others) will be perpetually rediscovered and reconsidered in years to come.
I am a better person for having shared time on this planet with Carla. I loved her music so much! She seemed a great human being too!