Turning point 1964

Paul Bley's Improvising Artists Inc. glowed briefly in the mid 1970s, retrieving remarkable past moments from his own repertoire (the Hillcrest Club group with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry) and providing a platform for new recordings in unexpected settings (the Sun Ra solo sessions).

“Turning point” contained particularly interesting material, in the form of five pieces recorded in March 1964 by his group with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian along with John Gilmore, then performing for a brief and rare period in settings outside the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Carla Bley composed all but one of the compositions on the session. The most interesting performance though is probably that of Paul Bley's own “Turning”. It encapsulates the dynamic flow between the group members and the individual spaces that open up. Gilmore takes some space akin to his solo on Sun Ra's “Rocket Number Nine”, finding his way to a conclusion pushed by the other three musicians.

“Ictus”, a composition familiar from Bley's then recent recordings with Jimmy Giuffre, is taken at an extremely fast pace. It sounds like Bley has ingested the theme into automatic mode, and Gilmore makes no attempt to state the theme. This makes the overall performance more interesting, as Gilmore's performance over a blur of impressions of the thematic material forces him to take his commentary to new places.

The session concludes with “Ida Lupino”, a melodic, rhythmic, almost Latin feel, with an elegant conclusion from Gilmore.

Bley would record another album predominantly of Carla Bley compositions a few months later with another musician from the Sun Ra Arkestra in a very different group, with a very different sound envelope. In this respect “Turning point” perhaps does represent just that, a pointer on the way to the “Barrage” quintet.