Bley Carla, nee Borg, *11 May 1938 Oakland (California), American pianist, composer and orchestrator. She became interested in jazz at the age of 17. In 1957, she moved to New York; soon she started composing and gained recognition of the environment. Bley’s works were performed, among others, by P. Bley (her future husband) G. Russell, J. Giuffre, A. Farmer, G. Burton, and C. Haden. In the 1st half of the 1960s, she cooperated with B. Dixon, P. Sanders, C. Moffett and M. Mantler (her second husband), with whom she led the Jazz Composers Orchestra (performance at the festival in Newport in 1965). In 1965, she started a quintet together with S. Lacny, and in the 1980s, a sextet with a bassist S. Swallow, whom she has been cooperating with to this day. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, she performed with the Very Big Carla Bley Band. She gave a few concerts in Poland (the first time at the Jazz Jamboree festival in 1981). She is still active – composing, releasing albums and giving concerts with her bands.
Bley belongs to the group of the most original composers and orchestrators of symphonic jazz. She is an important figure of the avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s. She uses a refined technique, and her songs, full of momentum and richness of sound, impress with a bold approach to sound material, form and carefully thought-out arrangement (with some influences of C. Mingus, G. Evans, and free jazz ). Bley’s compositional achievements include both single themes and extended forms for large instrumental ensembles (e.g. the jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, 1971). Albums: A Genuine Tong Funeral, 1968; Night-Glo, 1985; Fleur Carnivore, 1988 (CD 1990); Life Goes On, 2020.
