Carla Bley, prolific and expansive jazz pianist, dies at 87
Bley's pieces could be ethereally beautiful or subversively brash, but always found a grandeur without tilting into pretension.
Carla Bley, the pianist behind some of the most beloved compositions in the jazz canon, who recorded over two dozen albums between 1966 and 2019, died Tuesday. Her death was confirmed by her husband and longtime collaborator, bassist Steve Swallow; the cause given was complications from brain cancer. She was 87.
Bley was a force in jazz even before she made her first albums, her compositions recorded by notable modernists
