CD: Jazz review: Carla Bley Big Band, Appearing Nightly

Trips down memory lane often fail to generate much more than a nostalgic kind of jazz - but if there's anyone whose musical past is likely to be captivating, it is composer Carla Bley. Her flawless ear catches the bravura and spontaneous eloquence of the Count Basie big-band style she heard as a teenager in New York in the 1950s. This recording of a show in Paris sees her create an idiosyncratically fresh swing repertoire, enhanced with so many twisted fragments of classic standards that you eventually stop counting them. Greasy Gravy (inspired by Pretty Baby) is a sleazy slow-burner full of spluttering brass. Awful Coffee is a fast bop-swinger with a blistering baritone-sax solo from Julian Arguelles, a high-pitched riff-chatter of squawks and squeals from the band, and half a dozen standard soundbites, including Salt... [read full story]