Review: Steve Cardenas, Ben Allison, and Ted Nash’s ‘Healing Power – The Music of Carla Bley’

If Wayne Shorter is widely acknowledged as the most important living composer in jazz, who is the runner-up? Guitarist Steve Cardenas, bassist Ben Allison, and reedist Ted Nash on Healing Power – The Music of Carla Bley (Sunnyside Records, 2022) present a strong case for their album’s namesake.

That Bley’s work should need any advocacy proceeds from the nature of her work. The pianist’s compositions are simultaneously ubiquitous yet slippery to grasp. Everyone knows and plays “Ida Lupino” and “King Korn” (including this trio). “Escalator Over the Hill” and her arrangements for Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra are iconic, but how does one account for her Christmas carols or the Dinner Music project?

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One answer is that Bley, who turned 86 in May, has been around for a long time. Her body of work is a lot to reckon with. So, where does one start? Bley’s recordings aside, Healing Power is as good a place as any. The nine Bley compositions, hits, and obscurities are played with care, wit, and most importantly, heart.

This trio – inspired by the instrumentation of the early 1960s Jimmy Giuffre group – has been together since 2011. Their longevity is important because the ease and trust with which Cardenas, Allison, and Nash play is not only one of Healing Power’s great attractions but a necessary prerequisite for the often-contrapuntal arrangements featured.

 The charts never sound pedantic or, worse, arch. “King Korn” is a merry chase with the three musicians tossing Bley’s playful theme around the ensemble, while the knotty, bebop-influenced head of “Donkey” provides a launchpad for Nash’s daring intervallic leaps on tenor at a brisk tempo.

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Bley is among the greatest of jazz humorists, yet the downtempo pieces on Healing Power linger longest in memory. Beginning with Allison’s tolling bassline, “Ida Lupino,” Bley’s most familiar composition, emerges from a heat haze as a dusty Southwestern ghost-town bolero. “Lawns,” a ballad pretty enough to have words (does it?), could have been a yacht-rock song or a movie theme. Yet under the sweet sadness of its Brasilian-flavored melody, there is a current of unease, a John Cheever short story in music.

Bley’s Spanish-influenced pieces for the Liberation Music Orchestra incorporate both the emotional vehemence and towering personal tragedy that burns at the heart of flamenco. “Olhos De Gato” captures both aspects through Nash’s sad-toned clarinet and Allison’s sorrowful, Haden-esque bass solo. Cardenas’ spare, mostly single-note solo has the gravity of a Zurburán martyr.

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At this point in her long and variegated career, Carla Bley shouldn’t need any cheerleading. So let’s call Healing Power the best sort of birthday present for the grande dame of American jazz: one that we can all enjoy.

Healing Power – The Music of Carla Bley is now available on Sunnyside Records. It can be purchased on Bandcamp or from the label.

Tracklist: 1. Ida Lupino 6:18; 2. Donkey; 3. And Now, The Queen; 4. Ictus; 5. Lawns; 6. Ad Infinitum; 7. Olhos De Gato; 8. King Korn; 9. Healing Power.

Personnel: Steve Cardenas (guitar), Ben Allison (bass), Ted Nash (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet).