4x4 (Carla Bley album)

4 x 4
Studio album by Carla Bley
Released	2000
Recorded	July 1999
Genre	Jazz
Label	Watt/ECM
Producer	Carla Bley & Steve Swallow
Carla Bley chronology
Are We There Yet? (1998) 4 x 4 (2000) Looking for America (2002)

4 x 4 is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley with a chamber ensemble recorded in Oslo in 1999 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 2000. ^{[1] [2]}

Reception

The Allmusic review by David R. Adler awarded the album 3 stars and stated "This batch of compositions is informed by Bley's distinctive brand of tongue-in-cheek playfulness... While the entire eight-piece band is consistently a pleasure, some of the album's most appealing moments occur during several Bley/Swallow duet passages. The two have been performing and recording as a duo for many years, so in a certain sense the whole band seems to revolve around them". ^[3] The JazzTimes review by Aaron Steinberg said "Between gigs, the ruddy and no doubt road weary outfit took a time-out in Oslo to record 4 x 4. Bley and the band sound happy to have the time to themselves, and they mostly take it easy on light-hearted tunes with fun but simple arrangements". ^[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it 3⅓ stars stating "with music as impressive and as ambitious as this, who's complaining? " ^[5]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Penguin Guide to Jazz	[5]
Tom Hull	B+ ( ) [6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Carla Bley.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Blues in 12 Bars / Blues in 12 Other Bars"	14:32
2.	"Sidewinders in Paradise"	8:36
3.	"Les Trois Lagons (d'apres Henri Matisse): Plate XVII/Plate XVIII/Plate XIX"	15:37
4.	"Baseball"	7:48
5.	"Útviklingssang"	9:18

• Recorded at Rainbow Studio, Oslo in July 1999.

Personnel

• Carla Bley  – piano
• Lew Soloff  – trumpet
• Wolfgang Puschnig  – alto saxophone
• Andy Sheppard  – tenor saxophone
• Gary Valente  – trombone
• Larry Goldings  – organ
• Steve Swallow  – bass guitar
• Victor Lewis  – drums

References

1. Carla Bley discography accessed August 12, 2010
2. ECM/WATT discography Archived 2016-09-16 at the Wayback Machine accessed August 25, 2016
3. Adler, D. R. Allmusic Review accessed August 12, 2010
4. Steinberg, A. 4 x 4 Review Archived 2012-10-03 at the Wayback Machine JazzTimes , April, 2001
5. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) [1992]. The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). New York: Penguin. pp.  131. ISBN   0-14-102327-9.
6. Hull, Tom (28 February 2018). "Streamnotes". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved 9 July 2020.