PREVIEW MUSIC
and 703. while also continuing to expand the activities of the JCOA. In 1975. following a stint on the road as pianist with The Jack Bruce Band. she decided to put together her own group for the first time in her career. although she confesses that it remains an ambivalent pleasure.
‘I had great fun playing with Jack on the road. and when that broke up I just decided it was time to take my own band out. I still find it fun with the Big Band. but not so much with small groups. because I can have a nervous breakdown being on stage. Even my Sextet felt very naked. so it‘s real brave of me to work in a trio! With the Big Band I don‘t care at all. because I can hide in the back row. and don't have to take solos. I just stand up there and wave my hands.‘
Two key Bley projects date from the late 605. the excellent (but hard to find) collaboration with Gary Burton on A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA). and the massive song cycle Escalator Over The Hill (JCOA). now on CD for the first time. which she admits ‘just grew and grew’.
Trying something new has always
been second nature to Carla. and has often flown in the face of fashion and accepted wisdom. In the 805. for example. she put together a Sextet with no horns at all. but with a completely clear sense ofpurpose in her own mind.
‘The Sextet with no horns wasn‘t so much a loss of interest in horns as an attempt to discover more about the rhythm section. because I realised that I had spent so much time writing for horns that I had neglected the rest ofthe band. and didn't really know very much about it. I spent that time going all the way down to the base of the music. and as a consequence I know a lot more about the rhythm section now.‘
Following a long stint with her Sextet. she returned to horns with a vengeance in the Big Band which recorded one of her best records. Fleur Carnivore (Watt). in 1989. That project was followed by an even more ambitious effort. the Very Big Band with which she made her Scottish debut in Aberdeen last year. and which is featured on the new Watt CD The Very Big Carla Bley
The eccentric Ms Bley Band. a studio recording made during the tour. ‘It is actually more like writing for a conventional big band.’ she says. ‘because ofall those extra horns.‘
For her current project. though. Bley has gone back to the small group format which made her so nervous in the past. She has worked in a duo with bassman Steve Swallow (who is also her off-stage partner) in the past. and they have added saxophonist Andy Sheppard to what promises to be an exciting amalgam ofstylistic approaches to the music.
Sheppard is not exactly a stranger to them. He was a member of both versions of the Big Band. wrote a tune called ‘Carla'. Carla. Carla. Carla‘ dedicated to her (it’s on the Soft ()n The Inside recording). and Steve Swallow has been producer on each of Andy’s albums for Antilles. including the one due out in the autumn featuring his ln-(‘ommotion group.
Carla Bley. Steve Swallow. xlmly Sheppard play a! The Queen '5 Hall on Friday 31.
NICK WHITE
V LISTEN!
and ask for them by name. To save Miss Selfridge's reputation. we suggest they bring out a range for those with more esoteric tastes. How about Plum Ra or Ivory Cutler. for instance‘.’
I Who wasthaisuperstar saxophonist sitting in with the virtually unknown Edinburgh group Better Ways at the Film Festival
I closing gala party‘.’ None j other than Candy Dulfer. l who can name her price in the musos‘s bear-pit that is the session arena. It seems Dulfer was in town with
her husband. described by our informant as ‘a visiting thesp'. for the cultural jamboree. psyching
herself up. perhaps. for
j her gigat Edinburgh
I. Castle with Van
Morrison. The Better Ways set wasn’t the spontaneous stage
invasion that myth-makers would like. Dulfer was given a tape a week before the shindig. and liked it enough to sit in for four or five songs.
' I Not in quite enoughtlme
for the listings comes news
that. commencing at 7pm.
3 famous fresh-air
' enthusiasts Big Country
will be playing a set—
possibly lasting up to an
bour-and-a-half—at
Tower Records in Argyle
Street. Glasgow on Sat 20.
Staggeringly enough. they
7 have a new album coming
out as well. Funnythat.
I More news trom Tower:
not ones to turn uptheir
noses at a bit of
hard-rockin‘ hysteria. the
Argyle Street record store
wille openingat
; midnighton Sun 15(that's
the wee small hours of
Mon 16. calendar- l
; watchers) so that theycan '
flog copies oquns
'N‘Roses' new Ll’(s) Use
Yoiirlllusion (I and II) from the very minute they ;
goon sale. Similar events
have proved successful
and newsworthy around
the country. for releases
like Rattle Ami Hum and
Spike. For the latter. Elvis
Costello himself busked
songs from the album for
the queue outside. There
has been no confirmation.
though. that Axl Rose w ill
be on hand to abuse
potential customers with
baseball bats and bottles I
ofJack Daniels.
The List 30 August — 12 September 199133