Prijsverhandeling, Betreffende Het Leven En de Verdiensten Van Christiaan Brunings (1827)

This book combines interviews with jazz pianist Paul Bley and biographical information, transcriptions, and musical analysis. It is a summation of Bley’s musical views, as well as a retrospective on his career in his 70th year. Bley has played in a number of classic groups-notably with Jimmy Giuffre and Bill Frisell-and in 1958 collaborated with Ornette Coleman in a landmark live date. Since then he and Cecil Taylor have been the best-known pianists to expand the horizons of free jazz, mainly as solo performers. Bley is also the leading pioneer in jazz on synthesized keyboards. He has introduced many younger players including Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius. In the 1970s he founded his own label, Improvising Artists Inc. The conversations explore in depth how Bley has conceptualized the legacy of freedom inaugurated by Ornette Coleman, and applies it in his highly disciplined improvisations. They reveal what he considers to be the most important elements in forging an individual jazz style, and include many anecdotes about his career and colleagues. The interviews are accompanied by a biographical section, as well as by transcriptions and analysis of a number of Bley’s improvisations.