Quiet as it’s kept, Paul Bley is a luminous primary source in modern jazz. Keith Jarrett, the post-bop era’s most celebrated pianist, springs from Bley, as much as any single artist. Considering how Jarrett has advanced purely acoustic jazz in this hyper-electronic era, Bley’s covert impact compounds exponentially.
Here’s ravishing evidence, a live recording with bassist Gary Peacock, the pulse of Jarrett’s Standards Trio for decades, and drummer Paul Motian, who preceded that trio’s Jack DeJohnette. Hear the near-bottomless wellspring of lyrical ardor and invention Jarrett now displays more profligately than any pianist. Bley was there before him, molding fresh-clay compositions and improvs of beguiling idiosyncrasy, like “Flame” and “Mazatlan,” an extended piece of questioning, questing chords ringing piquantly. Bley even sings wordlessly with his own piano, with more restraint than perhaps Jarrett’s greatest performing weakness. Then there’s this trio’s standard, “I Loves You, Porgy,” as a magnificent, limpid blues—a bedeviled black woman’s soul-baring, grateful and courageous love declaration.
