Artist: Paul Bley

Paul Bley, CM was a jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s, as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ARP synthesizers.

In 1949, when Bley was starting his senior year of high school, Oscar Peterson asked Bley to fulfill his contract at the Alberta Lounge in Montreal. The next year Bley left Montreal for New York City and Juilliard.

In 1951, on summer break from Juilliard, Bley returned to Montreal where he helped organize the Montreal Jazz Workshop. In 1953 Bley invited the bebop alto saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker to the Jazz Workshop, where he played and recorded with him, making the record "Charlie Parker Montreal 1953". He also performed with tenor saxophonist Ben Webster at that time. In 1953, Charles Mingus produced the Introducing Paul Bley album for his label, Debut Records with Mingus on bass and drummer Art Blakey. In 1954 Bley received a call from Chet Baker inviting him to play opposite Baker's quintet at Jazz City in Hollywood, California for the month of March.

In the early 1960s Bley was part of a trio with Jimmy Giuffre on reeds and Steve Swallow on bass. Its repertoire included compositions by Giuffre, Bley and his now ex-wife, composer Carla Bley. In 1964 Bley was instrumental in the formation of the Jazz Composers Guild, a co-operative organization which brought together many free jazz musicians in New York: Bill Dixon, Roswell Rudd, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, Sun Ra, and others. The guild organized weekly concerts and created a forum for the "October Revolution" of 1964.