Paul Bley, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016), was a Canadian jazz pianist who helped develop the free jazz movement in the 1960s. He made important changes to how trios play music and was among the first to perform live using the Moog and ARP synthesizers. Music writer Ben Ratliff from the New York Times called his work "deeply original and unusual." Bley created many recordings from the 1950s up until his solo piano recordings in the 2000s.

Early life

Paul Bley was born in Montreal, Quebec, on November 10, 1932. His adoptive parents were Betty Marcovitch, who came to Canada from Romania, and Joseph Bley, who owned an embroidery factory. Joseph gave him the name Hyman Bley. In 1993, a family member from the Bley family in New York visited the Sweet Basil Jazz Club in New York City and told Bley that his father was actually his biological parent. At age five, Bley began learning to play the violin. However, when he was seven years old, after his mother divorced his father, he decided to switch to playing the piano. By the time he was eleven, he had earned a junior diploma from the McGill Conservatory in Montreal. At thirteen, he formed a band that performed at summer resorts in Ste. Agathe, Quebec. As a teenager, he changed his name to "Paul," believing that girls would find it more appealing. During his teenage years, he also played music with touring American bands, including Al Cowan's Tramp Band. In 1949, when Bley was beginning his senior year of high school, Oscar Peterson asked him to complete a contract to perform at the Alberta Lounge in Montreal. The following year, Bley moved from Montreal to New York City to study at Juilliard. Bley lived in the United States for his entire adult life but never gave up his Canadian citizenship.

1950s

In 1951, during summer break from Juilliard, Paul Bley returned to Montreal, where he helped organize the Montreal Jazz Workshop. In 1953, Bley invited Charlie Parker, a be-bop saxophonist and composer, to perform at the Jazz Workshop. Parker played and recorded with Bley, creating the record Charlie Parker Montreal 1953. After returning to New York City, Bley hired Jackie McLean, Al Levitt, and Doug Watkins to perform an extended gig at the Copa City on Long Island. From the early 1950s until 1960, Bley performed in trios with Al Levitt and Peter Ind. Recordings from a 1954 trio session were included on the Mercury album Paul Bley. In 1953, the Shaw Agency arranged for Bley and his trio to tour with Lester Young, who was advertised as "Lester Young and the Paul Bley Trio." Bley also performed with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster during this time. Additionally, in 1953, Charles Mingus produced the album Introducing Paul Bley for his label, Debut Records. Mingus played bass, and Art Blakey played drums on the recording. (In 1960, Bley recorded again with the Charles Mingus Group.)

In 1954, Bley received a call from Chet Baker, inviting him to perform with Baker’s quintet at Jazz City in Hollywood, California, for the month of March. This was followed by a tour with singer Dakota Staton. In July 1955, Down Beat Magazine published an article titled "PAUL BLEY, Jazz Is Just About Ready for Another Revolution." The article, reprinted in Down Beat’s 50th Anniversary edition, quoted Bley saying, "I’d like to write longer forms, I’d like to write music without a chordal center."

In 1956, Bley’s trio with Hal Gaylor and Lennie McBrowne toured across the United States, including a club in Juarez, Mexico. The tour ended with an invitation to perform at a New Year’s Eve gig at the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Palm Springs. During the performance, Bley collapsed on the bandstand due to a bleeding ulcer. Lucille Ball immediately took him to the hospital and paid for all his medical care. Bley had met Karen Borg while she worked as a cigarette girl at Birdland in New York. After Karen moved to Los Angeles to meet him, they married, and she became Carla Bley.

In 1957, Bley stayed in Los Angeles, where he led the house band at the Hillcrest Club. By 1958, the original band, which included vibraphonist Dave Pike, evolved into a quintet. Bley hired young avant-garde musicians: trumpeter Don Cherry, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins.

1960s

In the early 1960s, Paul Bley was part of a trio with Jimmy Giuffre on reeds and Steve Swallow on bass. The group performed music written by Giuffre, Bley, and Carla Bley, who was Bley’s ex-wife. Their music introduced new ideas in chamber jazz and free jazz. During a 1961 European tour by The Giuffre 3, audiences expected Bebop, but the recordings from this tour are now considered important works in free jazz. Around the same time, Bley performed and recorded with saxophonist Sonny Rollins. This collaboration led to the RCA Victor album Sonny Meets Hawk!, which featured saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. Bley’s solo on the song "All the Things You Are" from this album was later called "the shot heard around the world" by Pat Metheny.

In 1964, Bley helped create the Jazz Composers Guild, a group that brought together free jazz musicians in New York, including Bill Dixon, Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, and others. The guild held weekly concerts and organized the "October Revolution" of 1964. The influential album Turning Point, released by Improvising Artists in 1975, was recorded in 1964. Bley invited John Gilmore, Gary Peacock, and Paul Motian to the University of Washington to make the recording.

In the late 1960s, Bley was among the first musicians to use ARP and Moog synthesizers. On December 26, 1969, he performed the first live synthesizer concert at Philharmonic Hall in New York City. This event, called the "Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show," included singer and composer Annette Peacock, who had written many of Bley’s songs since 1964. Peacock later performed on recordings such as Dual Unity (credited to "Annette & Paul Bley") and Improvisie. The album Improvisie featured two long improvisational tracks with Bley on synthesizers, Peacock’s voice and keyboards, and percussion by Dutch free jazz drummer Han Bennink, who also appeared on part of Dual Unity.

1970s

In 1972, Manfred Eicher released Paul Bley's first solo piano recording, Open, to Love, on ECM Records. That same year, Bley also released the trio album Paul Bley & Scorpio for Milestone Records. On this album, Bley played two electric pianos and an Arp synthesizer. In 1974, Bley and Carol Goss, his second wife and a video artist, founded the production company Improvising Artists, later known as IAI Records & Video. The label released acoustic recordings by many influential improvisers of the twentieth century. It also produced the electric quartet album Jaco, which marked the debut recording of Pat Metheny on electric guitar and Jaco Pastorius on electric bass. Bley played electric piano on this album, and Bruce Ditmas played drums. IAI Records and Video featured performances by musicians such as Jimmy Giuffre, Lee Konitz, Dave Holland, Marion Brown, Gunter Hampel, Lester Bowie, Steve Lacy, Ran Blake, Perry Robinson, Naná Vasconcelos, Badal Roy, John Gilmore, Gary Peacock, and two solo piano records by Sun Ra, among others. Bley and Carol Goss are credited in a Billboard cover story with creating the first commercial "music video." Goss produced live video recordings with IAI Records artists, using images from analog video synthesizers during performances. Her video art often included Paul Bley's solo piano music and his electric band recordings, some of which have not yet been released on audio records.

1980s

In 1981, Paul Bley appeared in a documentary film called Imagine the Sound, where he performed and talked about the development of free jazz and his own music. During the 1980s, Paul Bley recorded music for several labels in many formats. These included solo piano albums such as Tears for Owl for Owl Records, Tango Palace for Soulnote, PAUL BLEY SOLO for Justin Time Records, Blues for Red for Red Records, and Solo Piano for SteepleChase Records. He also recorded with other musicians in duo and larger groups, including the album Diane with Chet Baker for SteepleChase Records, The Montreal Tapes with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian for Verve, Fragments with John Surman, Bill Frisell, and Paul Motian for ECM, and three recordings with Jimmy Giuffre and Steve Swallow for Owl Records. Paul Bley made many other recordings during this time.

1990s

Paul Bley continued to perform in Europe, Japan, South America, and the United States. He recorded music often as a solo artist and with many different groups. In 1993, the Montreal International Jazz Festival held a four-night concert series to honor Paul Bley. Some years, he recorded more than eight albums. One notable project was a record called Synthesis, which included work with a synthesizer for the Postcards label.

During this time, Bley also taught part-time at the New England Music Conservatory. He taught musicians Satoko Fujii and Yitzhak Yedid. He traveled to Boston once a month, partly to eat lobster, and often met with students in coffee shops. He believed students already knew how to play music but needed help with life lessons.

In 1998, the American television network Bravo and the French-German network Arte created a one-hour documentary about Paul Bley. His autobiography was published in 1999.

2000s

In 2001, the National Archives of Canada received Bley's archives. In 2003, a book titled Time Will Tell, based on interviews with Bley by musicologist Norman Meehan, was published. The book provided a detailed discussion about the process of improvisation. In 2008, he became a member of the Order of Canada. In 2009, a book titled Paul Bley: The Logic of Chance was published. The book was written in Italian by jazz pianist Arrigo Cappelletti and translated into English by jazz pianist Greg Burk. In addition to touring solo in the United States and Europe, Bley released several solo piano recordings during this time. These recordings included Basics, Nothing to Declare, and About Time for Justin Time Records, as well as Solo in Mondsee and Play Blue – Oslo Concert for ECM Records. Bley's last public performances were in 2010. He played a solo piano concert at the La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris, and then performed a duo with Charlie Haden at BlueNote in New York City during a full moon. Bley died of natural causes on January 3, 2016, at his home in Stuart, Florida. He was 83 years old.