Carla Bley - Escalator Over The Hill (1971) [1998] CD-Rip

This two-hour-plus opus is billed as "a chronotransduction." With music by Carla Bley and lyrics/text are by Paul Haines, the project was recorded over nearly three years (1968-1971) in several locations and with nearly a hundred people involved in one way or another (musicians, singers, speakers). Those involved included a veritable who's who of the jazz world at that time (from Don Cherry to John McLaughlin) along with such unexpected combinations of singers as Linda Ronstadt and Jack Bruce.

The music ranges from cabaret pieces to bits of early electronica, and from rock to elaborate post-bop large ensemble scoring. ESCALATOR is not an opera, but rather is closer to musical theater–"Holiday In Risk" is a hybrid avant-garde Broadway number, minus the stage production. All the various strains of Bley's writing are given the room they need on this two-disc set (originally released as a box set of three full-length records). The piece as a whole doesn't yield answers easily, but that hardly matters when the listening experience has been made this engaging.


Tracks:

CD1
01. Hotel Overture (13:12)
02. This is Here… (6:02)
03. Like Animals (1:21)
04. Escalator Over the Hill (4:57)
05. Stay Awake (1:32)
06. Ginger and David (1:40)
07. Song to Anything That Moves (2:22)
08. EOTH Theme (0:36)
09. Businessmen (5:39)
10. Ginger and David Theme (0:57)
11. Why (2:19)
12. It's Not What You Do (0:18)
13. Detective Writer Daughter (3:17)
14. Doctor Why (1:28)
15. Slow Dance (1:51)
16. Smalltown Agonist (5:24)


CD2
01. End of Head (0:38)
02. Over Her HEad (2:38)
03. Little Pony Soldier (4:36)
04. Oh Say Can You Do? (1:11)
05. Holiday in Risk (3:10)
06. Holiday in Risk Theme (0:53)
07. A.I.R. (All India Radio) (3:58)
08. Rawalpindi Blues (12:45)
09. End of Rawalpindi (9:40)
10. End of Animals (1:26)
11. …And It's Again (27:17)