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Escalator over the Hill

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Escalator over the Hill
Studio albumby
Carla BleyandPaul Haines
Released1971
Recorded1968–1971
Genre
Length103:35
LabelJCOARecords (LP)
WATT Records(CD)
ProducerMichael Mantler
Jazz Composer's Orchestrachronology
The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
(1968) 		Escalator over the Hill
(1971) 		Relativity Suite
(1973)
Carla Bleychronology
Jazz Realities
(1966) 		Escalator over the Hill
(1971) 		Tropic Appetites
(1974)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
All About Jazz(favorable)[1]
AllMusic[2]
Stylus(favorable)[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings[5]

Escalator over the Hill(orEOTH) is mostly referred to as ajazzopera,but it was released as a "chronotransduction", with "words byPaul Haines,adaptation and music byCarla Bley,production and coordination byMichael Mantler",performed by theJazz Composer's Orchestra.

History

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Escalator over the Hillis more than an hour and a half long and was recorded over three years (1968 to 1971). It was originally released as a tripleLPbox which also contained a booklet with lyrics, photos and profiles of the musicians. Side six of the original LPs ended in alocked groove,the final track "...And It's Again" continuing infinitely on manualrecord players.(For the CD reissue, the hum is allowed to play for 17 minutes before slowly fading out.)

In 1997, a live version ofEscalator over the Hill,re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman, was performed for the first time inCologne, Germany.In 1998, "Escalator" toured Europe. Another live performance took place in May 2006 inEssen,Germany.

The musicians involved in the original recording play in various combinations, covering a wide range of musical genres, fromKurt Weill's theater music, to free jazz, rock andIndian music.WriterStuart Broomerconsiders this to be a summing up "much of the creative energy that was loose between 1968 and 1972".[6]

Vivaacts as narrator.Jack Brucealso appears on bass and vocals. Among the vocalists is a young (and still relatively unknown)Linda Ronstadt,in addition toJeanne Lee,Paul Jones,Carla Bley,Don Preston,Sheila Jordan,and Bley's and Mantler's then-4-year-old daughterKaren Mantler.

Reception

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Jonathon Cott'sRolling Stonearticle stated: "Like an electric transformer,Escalator Over the Hillsynthesizes and draws on an enormous range of musical materials – raga, jazz, rock, ring modulated piano sounds, all brought together through Carla Bley's extraordinary formal sense and ability to unify individual but diverse musical sections by means of the editing of the record medium... The opera is an international musical encounter of the first order. "[7]

Marcello Carlin, writing forStylus Magazine,considers the album to be "the greatest record ever made." He said: "No protest, no social commentary. No expression of love, of grief, of hope, of despair. It is literally whatever you want to make of it. It is devoid of every quality which you might assume would qualify it to be the greatest of all records. And yet it is that tabula rasa in its heart, the blank space which may well exist at the very heart of all music, revealing the hard truth that we have to fill in the blanks, we have to interpret what is being played and sung, and our interpretation is the only one which can possibly be valid, as we cannot discern any perspective other than our own."[8]

Track listing

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Side one

  1. "Hotel Overture" – 13:11

Side two

  1. "This Is Here..." – 6:02
  2. "Like Animals" – 1:21
  3. "Escalator over the Hill" – 4:57
  4. "Stay Awake" – 1:31
  5. "Ginger and David" – 1:39
  6. "Song to Anything That Moves" – 2:22

Side three

  1. "EOTH Theme" – 0:35
  2. "Businessmen" – 5:38
  3. "Ginger and David Theme" – 0:57
  4. "Why" – 2:19
  5. "It's Not What You Do" – 0:17
  6. "Detective Writer Daughter" – 3:16
  7. "Doctor Why" – 1:28
  8. "Slow Dance (Transductory Music)" – 1:50
  9. "Smalltown Agonist" – 5:24

Side four

  1. "End of Head" – 0:38
  2. "Over Her Head" – 2:38
  3. "Little Pony Soldier" – 4:36
  4. "Oh Say Can You Do?" – 1:11
  5. "Holiday in Risk" – 3:10
  6. "Holiday in Risk Theme" – 0:52

Side five

  1. "A.I.R. (All India Radio)" – 3:58
  2. "Rawalpindi Blues" – 12:44

Side six

  1. "End of Rawalpindi" – 9:40
  2. "End of Animals" – 1:26
  3. "... And It's Again" – 8:55 (ends with a locked groove)
  • The CD release has sides one to three on CD 1, and sides four to six on CD 2.
  • "... And It's Again" runs for 27:17 on the CD release, with the locked groove at the end of the original LP playing for about 17 minutes. This is followed by a hidden track (starting at 27:02) consisting of calliope music and Bill Leonard saying “Oh say can you do?”, followed by faint laughter.

Personnel

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Principal cast

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Jane Blackstone, Carla Bley, Jonathan Cott,Sharon Freeman,Steve Gebhardt, Tyrus Gerlach, Eileen Hale, Rosalind Hupp, Jack Jeffers, Howard Johnson, Sheila Jordan,Michael Mantler,Timothy Marquand, Nancy Newton, Tod Papageorge, Don Preston, Bill Roughen, Phyllis Schneider,Bob Stewart,Pat Stewart, Viva

Musicians ( Alpha betical)

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Musicians (chronotransductional)

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Orchestra (& Hotel Lobby Band)

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  • Carla Bley (piano)
  • Jimmy Lyons (alto saxophone)
  • Gato Barbieri (tenor saxophone)
  • Chris Woods (baritone saxophone)
  • Michael Mantler, Enrico Rava (trumpet)
  • Roswell Rudd, Sam Burtis, Jimmy Knepper (trombone)
  • Jack Jeffers (bass trombone)
  • Bob Carlisle, Sharon Freeman (French horn)
  • John Buckingham (tuba)
  • Nancy Newton (viola)
  • Karl Berger (vibraphone)
  • Charlie Haden (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)
  • Roger Dawson (congas)
  • Bill Morimando (orchestra bells, celeste).

Jack's Traveling Band

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  • Carla Bley (organ)
  • John McLaughlin (guitar)
  • Jack Bruce (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)

Desert Band

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  • Carla Bley (organ)
  • Don Cherry (trumpet)
  • Souren Baronian (clarinet)
  • Leroy Jenkins (violin)
  • Calo Scott (cello)
  • Sam Brown (guitar)
  • Ron McClure (bass)
  • Paul Motian (dumbec)

Original Hotel Amateur Band

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  • Carla Bley (piano)
  • Michael Snow (trumpet)
  • Michael Mantler (valve trombone)
  • Howard Johnson (tuba)
  • Perry Robinson, Peggy Imig (clarinet)
  • Nancy Newton (viola)
  • Richard Youngstein (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)

Phantom Music

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  • Carla Bley (organ, celeste, chimes, calliope)
  • Michael Mantler (prepared piano)
  • Don Preston (Moog synthesizer)

Awards

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References

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  1. ^MacLaren, Trevor (2011)."Carla Bley and Paul Haines: Escalator Over the Hill".allaboutjazz.Retrieved18 July2011.
  2. ^Ginell, Richard S. (2011)."Escalator Over the Hill – Carla Bley | AllMusic".allmusic.Retrieved18 July2011.
  3. ^Carlin, Marcello (2011)."Stranded: Escalator Over the Hill – Article – Stylus Magazine".stylusmagazine.Retrieved18 July2011.
  4. ^Swenson, J., ed. (1985).The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide.USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp.26.ISBN0-394-72643-X.
  5. ^Cook, Richard;Brian Morton(2008).The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings.The Penguin Guide to Jazz(9th ed.). London: Penguin. p. 136.ISBN978-0-14-103401-0.
  6. ^Escalator Over the Hill.Editorial reviewbyStuart Broomeratamazon,retrieved on 2008-09-23
  7. ^Cott, J., 'Escalator': Grand, Horse & Jazz OpersRolling Stone,March 4, 1971 p.10
  8. ^Carlin, Marcello (1 September 2003)."Stranded: Escalator Over the Hill".Stylus Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon 9 September 2003.Retrieved21 July2018.
  9. ^Wilson, John S (17 March 1974)."Don't Call Carla's Jazz jazz".The New York Times.New York.Retrieved17 March2021.
  10. ^"Palmarès 1972".academiedujazz.Académie du jazz.Retrieved17 March2021.
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