Time Will Tell

As a Musician, pianist Paul Bley has done it all. He's played, as he says "everywhere, with everybody," from Lester Young to Pat Metheny. He has performed as both soloist and bandleader, founded his own label, organized his own festival, toured the world and recorded over 100 discs, in styles ranging from bop, to free playing, to romantic balladry. Recently turned 70, Bley invited musicologist Norman Meehan to participate in a series of wide-ranging interviews on every aspect of his long career. Here is not only a prominent musician but a unique theorist, reflecting in his characteristically forthright way on the business of jazz ("contract is a non-improvised word"); his minimalist approach to performance ("the first person to play a note is chicken!"); his fellow musicians ("I'm an antagonist of Bill Evans"); his attitude toward technique: ("it's not even a problem"); his perfectionism ("I love the expression, 'going past excellence'), and much else besides. Bley also discusses his plans for the future, including involvement with world music and "that big media in the sky called DVD." The interviews are complemented by brief musicological sections and analysis of key recordings. Wonderfully frank and provocative, Time Will Tell reveals a man whose opinions are as distinctively inscribed as his music. Book jacket.