Open, To Love cover

Open, To Love

Released

Two years after sowing his 1971 classic, Ballads, pianist Paul Bley reaped this rich crop of solo piano selections. Alongside his own timeless music, he pays homage to Carla Bley (his take on “Ida Lupino” is a stunner) and Annette Peacock, whose “Nothing Ever Was, Anyway” cathartically upsets the otherwise contemplative mood on a relatively aggressive note. Whatever the register, intimacy rules the day as if it were night, courting darkness into the foreground as a means of personal growth. Indeed, this is an album that evolves the more we listen to it.

Tyran Grillo

Recommended by

Suggestions
Extended Circle cover

Extended Circle

Tord Gustavsen Quartet
The Adornment of Time cover

The Adornment of Time

Tyshawn Sorey, Marilyn Crispell
Mysteries cover

Mysteries

Keith Jarrett
You’ve Been Watching Me cover

You’ve Been Watching Me

Tim Berne's Snakeoil
A U R O R A cover

A U R O R A

Ben Frost
ER cover

ER

Nils Petter Molvær
Sangam cover

Sangam

Trygve Seim
Naked City cover

Naked City

John Zorn, Naked City
Songs of Mirth & Melancholy cover

Songs of Mirth & Melancholy

Joey Calderazzo, Branford Marsalis
Universal Syncopations cover

Universal Syncopations

Jan Garbarek, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Miroslav Vitous, Chick Corea
When Will the Blues Leave cover

When Will the Blues Leave

Paul Motian, Gary Peacock, Paul Bley
Live at the Royal Festival Hall 2004 cover

Live at the Royal Festival Hall 2004

Anthony Braxton