paul bley "blood" question...

[Guest akanalog]

eugene chadbourne really rips into one of those live bley albums with the levinson and altschul rhythm section. he seems like a grump. he actually i think did more negative bley reviews but some of them have been replaced with more gushing thom jurek reviews. chadbourne doesn't seem to think much of levinson as a bass player but he does have a funny line about one levinson solo sounding like, i don't quite remember the quote, but like 'an angry bee attacking a plate of ravioli" or something.

[brownie]

'Blood' came out first on 'International Polydor'. It was subtitled 'Paul Bley in Haarlem'.

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I've got a Japanese CD issue of that with this cover:

But the OBI shows the Fontana cover posted above. Go figure.

IIRC, this albm was also 1/2 of the Arista/Freedom 2-fer LP Copenhagen and Haarlem.

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That's the cover of the original vinyl issue on International Polydor. No credit given for the designer. A shame! The black blood spills all the way to the bottom of the back cover!

[AllenLowe]

where did these Chadbourne reviews appear?

[Guest akanalog]

chadbourne has done reviews for allmusicguide

i don't think you can search by reviewer, but on the site he has done a number of reviews.

[RDK]

'Blood' came out first on 'International Polydor'. It was subtitled 'Paul Bley in Haarlem'.

←

I've got a Japanese CD issue of that with this cover:

But the OBI shows the Fontana cover posted above. Go figure.

IIRC, this albm was also 1/2 of the Arista/Freedom 2-fer LP Copenhagen and Haarlem.

←

That's the cover of the original vinyl issue on International Polydor. No credit given for the designer. A shame! The black blood spills all the way to the bottom of the back cover!

←

Great cover. If it was a comic book, I'd say the artist was Steranko.

[RDK]

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&t...10:uxtxlfwejcqy

Review by Eugene Chadbourne

A live recording from 1966, this seems to be a typical type of gig Paul Bley was doing with his trio during this time. The versions of tunes are extended, meaning there is only room for two on an LP, one per side. As for the quality of the playing, fans of the pianist would want to hope this is not typical, as this date comes off as kind of uninspired. Of the two pieces, "Blood" is the more aggressive, and Bley seems to lack energy here. Barry Altschul tries mightily, then tries too hard on the flip side, a rhythmically bumbling version of "Mister Joy," in this case credited to Bley rather than Annette Peacock — and not really sounding much like this tune as recorded on the later Bley and Peacock albums with synthesizer. The pianist starts off in a grandiose manner, piling up ringing chords as if hoarding wood for an oncoming snowstorm, even throwing in the sustaining high note flourishes that tend to be one of his acts of desperation. Then he's off the scene, before much of anything has happened, leaving the floor to bassist Mark Levinson, who is quite a boring soloist. The drummer also has a dull, extended solo on the first side — this is nothing like the type of inventive sound effects Altschul would later develop, so the listener will have to make do with a lot of paradiddles and obscure tom-tom messages. Levinson sometimes seems to be pushing at the pianist, but Bley's reaction throughout these performances is to back out of situations. There are a few good bits later in the first side where the pianist seems to be manipulating and muting the sound of the strings by hand, but even alert listeners might have gotten worn out by then. Perhaps Bley is just frustrated that his bassist seems to have no clue when to quit, at one point taking over the proceedings with what sounds like a bumblebee having an encounter with a plate of ravioli.