Not to disagree with Parry, but DINNER MUSIC is a pretty bad intro to Carla -- it's the STUFF guys playing her tunes, basicially. Like SONGS WITH LEGS and her three duet albums with Swallow, they're much more engaging after you know the material from a version with larger instrumentation. Musique Mechanique is okay, but, of that approx period, SOCIAL STUDIES is the popular fav, and for good reason. VERY BIG BAND, FLEUR CARNIVORE, BIG BAND THEORY, GOES TO CHURCH, 4 X 4, AND the newest, LOOKING FOR AMERICA, are all essentials in my house. SONGS WITH LEGS,, on the other hand, doesn't kill me as much (and I'm a fool for Carla). That arrangement of "Mysterioso" is a reduction of the one she did for THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL NOW, and THAT's the money. Not mentioned but just incredible: FANCY CHAMBER MUSIC (CB writes for chamber instrumentation), and her soundtrack for RONDELLE MARTONNEE (hope I spelled that right). Both are utterly fantastic. sh on 6/23/03 10:16 PM, Parry Gettelman at parry@macconnect.com wrote:
Three of my favorites are from the '70s, "Dinner Music," "European Tour" and esp. "Musique Mechanique," which has one of my favorite big-band pieces by anybody, "440." Just sparkling compositions and arrangements, and some of my favorite players. Roswell Rudd and Bob Stewart are on all three, Terry Adams (of NRBQ infamy) and Gary Windo are on "European Tour" and "Musique Mecanique." "European Tour also has Andrew Cyrille, and "Musique Mecanique" has Eugene Chadbourne, Steve Swallow and Charlie Haden. And "Musique Mecanique" features not one but two french horns .(I wonder if Gary Clark and John Clark are brothers from some kind of french horn dynasty? Looking up Gary Clark on allmusic.com, one finds he has also written songs for Natalie Imbruglia and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys. I love allmusic.com, but it gets pretty funny when two musicians have the same name).
I also esp. like "The Very Big Carla Bley Band," from 1991 (here's a great song title -- "Strange Arrangement"), and "Songs with Legs," a 1995 live-in-Europe trio release w/ Steve Swallow and Andy Sheppard, which has an interesting, bluesy version of Monk's "Misterioso."