Barrage (Paul Bley album)


Barrage is the fifth album led by jazz pianist Paul Bley, and the first by any artist devoted entirely to songs by his then-wife Carla Bley. The album was recorded by Bley's Quintet in 1964 and released on the ESP-Disk label, and features saxophonist Marshall Allen in a rare appearance outside his usual gig with pianist/composer Sun Ra.

Reception

awarded the album 4 stars calling it "a lost free jazz classic". Reviewing the 2009 rerelease All About Jazz stated "Barrage is a gem from the ESP-Disk archives; an important document in the progress of contemporary music, as fresh today as the day it was first performed" The Penguin Guide to Jazz said "much of the interest in the album, which like its successor consists entirely of Carla Bley tunes, is in hearing Johnson and Allen in a small group context. The music is fairly hard-edged and the presence of two such confrontational players gives the set an uncomfortable fiery complexion that tends to singe away the its more subtle moments".

Track listing

All compositions by Carla Bley
  1. "Batterie" - 4:19
  2. "Ictus" - 5:24
  3. "And Now the Queen" - 4:21
  4. "Around Again" - 4:15
  5. "Walking Woman" - 4:18
  6. "Barrage" - 5:31

    Personnel