My review of Carla Bley's Andano el Tiempo, today at All About Jazz.

A few months shy of three years following the release of Trios (ECM, 2013), composer/keyboardist and NEA Jazz Master Carla Bley returns with Andando el Tiempo, an album of largely introspective music that shares much with its predecessor, but also acts as a flip side of the same coin.

Like Trios, Andando el Tiempo was recorded in Lugano, Italy (albeit in two different rooms) and brings back the same trio that first appeared on 1994's Songs With Legs (Watt/ECM) but reconvened in 2013 to record Trios: Bley, on piano, alongside life partner/electric bassist Steve Swallow and saxophonist Andy Sheppard. And, with Andando el Tiempo, Bley once again hands the role of producer over to ECM's Manfred Eicher--surprisingly, given her longstanding relationship with the label that distributed all recordings on her Watt and XTRAWatt labels beginning in the early 1970s, Trios was the first time that the composer/pianist was produced by the ECM label head. As with Trios, Eicher's input as an active producer--who gets his hands dirty rather than simply overseeing the proceedings--plays a significant role in the success of Andando el Tiempo.

Where Andando el Tiempo differs significantly is the repertoire. While Bley sifted through her existing back catalog for Trios--playing music that dated as far back as before her own career as a leader actually began ("Vashkar," first appearing on pianist Paul Bley's 1963 Footloose!, on the Savoy imprint, but also made famous on drummer Tony Williams' 1969 Lifetime debut on Polydor, Emergency!), through to more recent fare like "Les trois lagons," first heard on 4x4 (Watt/ECM, 2000)--Andando el Tiempo is comprised of all-new material. That Bley--who turns 80 ten days after Andando el Tiempo's release on May 6, 2016--is still capable of writing not just good music, but great music is a remarkable achievement in itself; but, equally important, her playing--in some ways encouraged Eicher to assume a more central (or, at the very least, equal) role than she often has in the past on Trios and now Andando el Tiempo--also remains distinctive...and demonstrative that sheer virtuosity is not necessarily a prerequisite for greatness.

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