Chaos

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Pianist , composer and improviser Paul Bley must surely be one of the most prolific recording artists in contemporary jazz. He is, of course, one of the giants of the music, his career stretching back almost forty years, and taking in associations with such other legendary figures as Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins. His path has genuinely been a singular one. While always, at heart, a free improviser, and one capable in his playing of blinding ferocity, he is nonetheless essentially a highly lyrical player, whose playing, from the early 60s trio with Jimmy Giuffre and Steve Swallow onwards exhibits huge technical skill in tandem with great grace. He continues to work continuously, gigging and recording with some of free and contemporary jazz's key movers. This CD, from the ever-reliable Italian label Soul Note, captures him in musical conversation with Italian double bassist Furio Di Castri and the great English Drummer Tony Oxley, both as a duo with each and as a trio. The range of expression here is extraordinary; each player can swing furiously, play utterly "out", can play with delicacy, complexity and an almost childlike simplicity. It makes for schizophrenic listening, for sure, but I personally delight in my own inability to second guess where this music is about to go; the sense of being wrong-footed is a total gas. Special props to Tony Oxley; he is often overlooked in discussions about UK musicians, yet how wrong that is. He is an astonishing musician, a drummer who makes pulse-less free playing seem somehow restlessly rhythmic, and who comes on - in real time, mind - like five drummers: an incredible virtuoso, and one to be cherished.