Ever since the unfortunate passing of Cecil Taylor, we've been in a piano phase here at the Old School Friday desk of WDW. In keeping with that theme, tonight we offer the late Paul Bley playing a lovely song written by his still-living ex-wife, the immensely talented composer Carla Bley.
The song is titled Ida Lupino for the earthy, intelligent actor, director and producer, arguably Hollywood's first feminist icon. Martin Scorsese once described Lupino as “a true pioneer" and "a woman of extraordinary talents,” and described the films she directed as "remarkable chamber pieces that deal with challenging subjects in a clear, almost documentary fashion," constituting "a singular achievement in American cinema."
The version of the song Ida Lupino posted up above is a fairly straight-forward reading of the melody from 1965 by the Paul Bley Trio (Bley, Steve Swallow, and Barry Altschul); the version below is a more searching, 1973 solo piano extrapolation of the song's themes. It helps to hear the trio version first to understand how Bley slices and dices it in the solo version.
Ida Lupino is a beautiful and hauntingly sad song that for reasons I do not understand can literally bring tears to my eyes when I hear it played.
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