Open, to Love

Open, to Love
Studio album by
Released1972
RecordedSeptember 11, 1972 (1972-09-11)
StudioArne Bendiksen Studio
Oslo, Norway
GenreJazz
Length42:32
LabelECM 1023 ST
ProducerManfred Eicher
Paul Bley chronology
Dual Unity
(1972)
Open, to Love
(1972)
Paul Bley & Scorpio
(1973)

Open, to Love is a solo album by Canadian jazz pianist and composer Paul Bley recorded on September 11, 1972 and released on ECM later that year.

Background

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The album is one of the first showcases of the pointillism and silence that would inform much of his later work.[1]

Open, to Love was selected as part of the ECM Touchstones series, as one of the most influential recordings on the label.[2]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[4]

The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 5 stars stating "Despite the fact that pianist and composer Paul Bley had been a renowned and innovative jazzman for nearly 20 years, 1973 saw the release of his most mature and visionary work, and one that to this day remains his opus. This is one of the most influential solo piano recordings in jazz history, and certainly one that defined the sound of the German label ECM... Ultimately, what Bley offers is jazz pianism as a new kind of aural poetics, one that treats the extension of the composer's line much as the poet treats the line as the extension of breath. Sheer brilliance."[1]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz said "There is, perhaps, inevitably a hint of deja-vu here and there, but the territory is always much too interesting for that to become a problem."[3]

Track listing

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Side I
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Closer"Carla Bley5:51
2."Ida Lupino"Carla Bley7:31
3."Started"Paul Bley5:13
Total length:18:36
Side II
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Open, to Love"Annette Peacock7:10
2."Harlem"Paul Bley3:22
3."Seven"Carla Bley7:21
4."Nothing Ever Was, Anyway"Annette Peacock6:02
Total length:23:56 42:32

Personnel

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Paul Bleypiano

References

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  1. ^ a b c Jurek, T. Allmusic Review accessed August 29, 2011
  2. ^ Open To Love at ECM Records
  3. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 132. ISBN 978-0141023274.
  4. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 26. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
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