Here is my little tribute to Carla Bley a wonderful musician and composer, with that trade mark hair do, who I read today, has passed away. Here are some pictures taken years ago in impossible light during a rehearsal in Reggio Emilia.
Grainy and shaky, thanks to the crude gear we used back then. But I hope they communicate something about this musician.
Nick Mason's solo debut album Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports was written entirely by Bley, and features, alongside Mason on drums, many of her regular band musicians.
Her early stuff like this and Escalator Over the Hill are quite out of the ordinary. I saw her much later with her trio of Swallow and the gifted saxophonist Andy Sheppard, who hails from Bristol.
Beautiful B&W images!
Bob
I think they came out great considering they were shot as low as 1/8 of a second.
Bob
Thanks. They were probably shot at around 1/30 - 1/125, with my MF 300mm 2.8 lens back in the late 80's. They were shot on Tmax 400 pushed to 3200. My Nikon F801 camera was on a monopod.
These are digital reproductions of my negs made with the D850 at 1/8.
I enjoyed her work with Charlie Haden, but if you haven't heard much of Haden before, this track and LP are worth a purchase:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K4pwD2c6uI
That wonderful CD has been in my sprawling CD collection for many years now. I have seen Haden too a few times. Pat Metheny is probably my favourite Jazz musician. We try to go and see him when he plays in Italy each year.
Hard not to like Pat! I've seen him many times in concert over the past 40 years...
