re: Endless Sleep - The Obituary Thread

Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; (May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she was perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator over the Hill (released as a triple LP set), as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer, John Scofield, and her ex-husband Paul Bley. She was a pioneer in the development of independent artist-owned record labels, and recorded over two dozen albums between 1966 and 2019.

Bley and Mantler founded their own record company, WATT, in 1972, and it became her main outlet from 1974's Tropic Appetites through 2009's Carla's Christmas Carols, the latter made with the Partyka Brass Quintet. Throughout the years, she kept evolving — recording three albums for ECM in a trio with Swallow and British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, and leading a horn-heavy ensemble in the 1980s and '90s, one of her most enduring projects.