Bley represents a new and unique impulse in jazz—a desire to embrace big, messy, intellectual subjects. It’s not a natural mode for jazz, which tends to dwell on aesthetic detail. You know, art for art’s sake. But her latest album, Looking For America, sounds the clarion that jazz is uniquely equipped to approach complex issues like, well, the crazy conflicted country that birthed it. No wonder she’s been compared (favorably) to giants like Ellington and Mingus. And when was the last time you picked up a record—of any genre—that warned “the views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the musicians or the record label”? Northrop, 84 Church St. S.E., northrop.umn.edu
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