On May 2, The New School Studio Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble presents the U.S. premiere performance of Carla Bley’s landmark 1971 album, Escalator Over the Hill.
J.D. Considine captures the essence of Bley’s iconic work, writing in TIDAL magazine -
"Whenever the topic of Great Albums of the 1970s crops up, certain titles invariably recur. There’s Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. But while reading through the recent tributes to the great jazz composer and pianist Carla Bley, who died on Oct. 17, at age 87, I was reminded of the masterwork that’s always missing from those lists: Bley’s Escalator Over the Hill.
Released in 1971, it announced itself as a “Chronotransduction” — an invented term meaning, roughly, “a transference of time” — but was otherwise thought of as a jazz opera, in the vein of rock operas like Tommy or Jesus Christ Superstar. Except the music on Escalator Over the Hill goes well beyond the usual boundaries of genre.
In addition to bracing bursts of free jazz, there are cabaret songs, snatches of country music, deep dives into jazz fusion, an excursion into Hindustani pop, elements of ambient music and nods to New York minimalism. Not to mention a fair amount of stuff that simply falls under the rubric “none of the above…
The only thing that would make me happier than seeing a retrospective embrace of Escalator Over the Hill as an album would be to see a corresponding burst of live performances worldwide.
Honestly, you folks don’t know what you’re missing."
Join us for this special presentation of a rarely seen, iconic work.
THE NEW SCHOOL STUDIO ORCHESTRA & VOCAL ENSEMBLE
Performs
Escalator Over the Hill
Music by Carla Bley
Words by Paul Haines
Keller Coker, Music Director and Conductor
Aubrey Johnson, Vocalist Conductor
with -
Steve Cardenas, guitar
Dirk Freymuth, electric sitar and shruti box
Arturo O’Farrill, piano
Matt Wilson, percussion
Free with registration/Space is limited.
