![]() Unable to accept the economic and musical restrictions imposed by the music business establishment, they decided to control their own lives as much as possible, and now have a record company, a recording studio, publishing companies, and a band, all dedicated to the presentation and realization of their music without compromise.” 4 Perhaps in response to this situation, around 1977 Bley and Mantler published a Watt catalog in the form of a meticulously designed booklet that included several informative, self-promotional descriptions and a strong assertion of their artistic discipline and self-reliance: “Carla Bley and Michael Mantler are two composers. Nobody has any use for a jazz composer anymore, because everybody saw the clear copyright advantages to writing their own tunes, however feeble they might have been, to record.” 3 It almost has sounded the death knell of somebody who would call himself a jazz composer. For the work of a true composer, not just a player who wrote tunes on the side, this new situation was potentially detrimental: “People like Carla, in particular, who’s essentially a writer who plays, rather than a player who writes, suffered mightily. Steve Swallow, who along with other musicians affiliated with Boston’s Berklee College of Music was involved in compiling The Real Book around this time, explained that this shift in the roles of players versus composers eroded standards of quality in jazz composition. Part of Bley’s change in attitude about performing more frequently might also have been influenced by a change in the musical landscape during the 1970s, by which time many musicians recognized the advantages of writing and copyrighting their own material. That caused me to write more than ever, since I now had an immediate outlet and a constant demand for new material.” 2 I wanted to continue traveling and playing in public. When the group broke up I found it impossible to go back to being a reclusive composer. Bley recalls: “Then I joined a famous rock and roll band. The experience of touring and performing live for large audiences had a transformative effect on Bley, and she became interested in creating her own band. ![]() On tour Bley mostly played Mellotron and Hammond organ she left the group when the tour ended. ![]() The tour began on April 22, 1974, in Barcelona, and between then and June 9, when the tour ended at Cambridge University, the group performed twenty-six concerts in nine European countries. I didn’t see her as a technical player, more of a composer who had a particular approach which appealed to me-very Kurt Will and European.” 1 But we had done things on Escalator where she had an interesting approach to keyboards, very simple. I didn’t know what she’d be like in the band. Bruce, who had been aware of Bley’s composition from a relatively young age, encouraged her participation in the band: “I really thought Carla was very special-still do-a very interesting composer, and I just wanted people to be aware of her. Soon after settling in Willow, New York, in late 1974, Bley joined the Jack Bruce Band, a quintet that included Bruce Gary, Ronnie Leahy, and the Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, and began rehearsal for a tour.
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