Fully 35 years after Open, to Love, Paul Bley's seminal solo piano recording for ECM (which stands as a watermark both in his own career and in the history of the label -- i.e., unconsciously aiding Manfred Eicher in establishing its "sound"), the pianist returns to the label for another go at it on Solo in Mondsee. Recorded in Mondsee, Austria, in 2001, and not issued until Bley's 75th year, these numbered "Mondsee Variations" were played on a Bösendorfer Imperial grand piano, an instrument that is, like its player, in a class of its own. Bley moves through ten improvisations lasting between two and just under nine minutes each. His range of thought, instinct, and motion is staggering. In a little over 55 minutes, he combines melodic and abstract notions of jazz and blues (especially on "VII" for the latter), ghost traces of popular song from the 1930s to the present, various folk musics, contemporary classical ideas, and reflections on the art of improvisation itself. This set isn't about flash, nor is it about transcendence. It's about the investigation of space, and the arrangement of music within it. While Bley has recorded other solo albums in the last 35 years, none is more diverse and tender in its sparseness than this one. His sense of detail is also his sense of economy on the instrument, which is graceful and elegant, rarely simply "percussive." In this manner Bley is a poet of sound. He pushes a line only as far as the extension of his own "breath," as the late poet Charles Olson put it regarding written language. Where the writer felt compelled to use the "/" symbol as a way of creating a break, Bley is not so specific; he is not interested in being a celebrated "technician." He pushes the line in any way that suits the idea at hand, which in turns suggests others; he allows room for its reverberations and trace echoes to inform each following sound, creating song from silence, lyric from air. His vast knowledge of musical forms is never knotty or purely intellectual; there is a great deal of emotion put into -- and coming out of -- each and every piece; the harmonic reflections on "IV" and "V" are particularly beautiful in very different ways. There is a wall that writing about this music presents; there is only so much explaining to do, because there isn't a written language that can even hope to convey this except poetry itself, and even there, it falls short. For anyone who has ever wondered about Bley and his amazing 60-year career in jazz, or for anyone interested in either the piano or improvisation, this recording, like its predecessor, will mystify, delight, and satisfy in ways that cannot really be imagined until Solo in Mondsee is actually encountered. - Thomas Jurek
It's been thirty-five years since pianist Paul Bley released Open, to love (ECM, 1972), an early classic of the then-nascent German record label. While Keith Jarrett's Facing You, from the same year, would go on to generate greater acclaim for the young pianist, listening to these two discs side-by-side reveals Bley's unmistakable influence. Despite ongoing critical acclaim throughout the ensuing years, Bley has never achieved Jarrett's degree of popular or financial success.
While Jarrett packs houses with his longstanding Standards Trio and a recent return to solo performance, Bley has chosen a more risk-laden path. His infrequent recordings for ECM have been especially notable in his lengthy discography, with Not Two, Not One—featuring bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian—being one of the best piano trio albums of 1999. Solo in Mondsee—his first solo piano recording for the label since Open, to love—is just as compelling, and deserves a place as one of the best of 2007.
Solo in Mondsee isn't Bley's first solo album since Open, to love, but being his first for ECM there is a difference. Nothing to Declare (Justin Time, 2004) referenced Bley's unmistakable affinity for the blues over the course of four extended improvisations. Solo in Mondsee consists of shorter explorations, ranging from two to nine minutes, and while the blues still figures into the equation, especially on "Variation VII, the music here is more all-encompassing.
Bley's approach to improvisation has always felt distinctively selfless. He never relies on melodrama or flamboyant showmanship, although there are moments of undeniable virtuosity throughout this 55-minute set of ten variations. But they're always means to more altruistic musical ends, even as it's clear that the insularity of performing alone at Schloss Mondsee in Austria left Bley with nobody to please but himself.
If we are the sum total of our experiences, then Bley's strong ties to the jazz tradition make this a more unequivocally jazz record than Jarrett's solo efforts. Free improvisations they may be, but there's a sense of the familiar that pervades, even as Bley makes them personal by turning known devices on their sides. Odd dissonances create an off- kilter feeling; abstraction morphs into lyrical beauty; sudden shifts from spare economy to rapid-fire passages feel like non sequiturs until magically brought back into context; and finding ways to be both free and swinging at the same time are some of the qualities that make Solo inMondsee such a revelation and a joy, with every listen yielding new rewards.
These days it's nearly impossible for a record to get the kind of exposure that's required to make it a popular classic but, at the very least, Solo in Mondsee is the descendant of an undisputed masterpiece that deserves nothing less than equal attention. - John Kelman
Tracks
01. Mondsee Variations I
02. Mondsee Variations II
03. Mondsee Variations III
04. Mondsee Variations IV
05. Mondsee Variations V
06. Mondsee Variations VI
07. Mondsee Variations VII
08. Mondsee Variations VIII
09. Mondsee Variations IX
10. Mondsee Variations X
PAUL BLEY piano
All music composed by Paul Bley
Recorded April 2001 at Schloss Mondsee, Austria
ECM Records - ECM 1786 (Germany)