BRUNO TOCANNE

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"The perfect combination of old and new, control and abandonment, realism and abstraction" CARLA BLEY

An oh so happy extension of a twentieth century masterpiece "
LUDOVIC FLORIN

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A collective project

Although coming from different generations, all the artists involved in this project have, through various paths, become aware of the importance for our music of this period which runs from 1965 to 1980: either for some through an immersion which was an integral part of their learning, either for the others by the desire to apprehend an essential part of the roots of the music they create. These years have seen the birth of the artistic and intellectual approaches that have founded a whole part of the improvised music of the past 40 years and have been marked by key works.

Escalator Over the Hill is one of those pivotal moments: not so much through the creativity and mastery of the composer and musicians, but through the emergence of new compositional modalities. Because it is no longer a question here of opposing writing and improvisation, jazz and work to program, but rather to weave them in a continuum where the lines are constantly moving.

 

And we can clearly see that everyone is participating at multiple levels in this project which, as we have seen, was to transcend any stylistic category. At this point in our individual journeys and after numerous collaborations on different projects, a work around this work therefore became obvious to us as well as a necessity. Desire of course, but also a desire to confront this corpus, to give it a different reading, not "arrangement", not "recovery", but eminently favorable ground for other explorations, for the creation of other transversalities within of the abundance that CARLA BLEY has offered us.

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"Abundant, extravagant work, Escalator Over the Hill (EOTH) by CARLA BLEY- PAUL HAINES, was released in 1972 in the form of a triple LP of more than two hours of music, which combines musical theater, declaimed poetry, country , jazz, pop-rock, world music, electronic manipulations ... The appropriation of the collective turns out to be rich, multiple, powerful, in musical choices that are always judicious; and above all, the necessary enthusiasm and the no less essential generosity of the musicians. offer an oh so happy extension of a twentieth century masterpiece which nevertheless has many. "Over the Hills" thus gives the original work to be heard as much as it offers an Other work! "
LUDOVIC FLORIN , director of the publication Carla Bley "L'inattendu-e" / Naïve Livres - Lecturer at the University of Toulouse 2