WATT Records

Last updated
WATT Records
Founded1973 (1973)
Founder Carla Bley and Michael Mantler
Distributor(s)New Music Distribution Service, ECM Records
Genre Jazz, Avant-garde jazz, Experimental jazz
Country of originU.S.
LocationNew York, NY

WATT Records was a record label, recording studio, and music publisher founded by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler in May 1973. [1] WATT was distributed by ECM Records. Bley and Mantler also set up New Music Distribution Service to promote WATT and new music. [2] [3]

Contents

Discography

AlbumArtistYearNotes
No Answer Carla Bley with Jack Bruce and Don Cherry 1973
Tropic Appetites Carla Bley 1974
13 & ¾ Carla Bley 1975
The Hapless Child Carla Bley 1976Texts by Edward Gorey
Silence Carla Bley 1976Texts by Harold Pinter
Movies Carla Bley 1977
Dinner Music Carla Bley 1977
European Tour 1977 Carla Bley 1978
Musique Mecanique Carla Bley 1979
More Movies Carla Bley 1980
Social Studies Carla Bley 1981
Something There Carla Bley 1982
Live! Carla Bley 1982
I Hate to Sing Carla Bley 1984
Heavy Heart Carla Bley 1984
Night-Glo Carla Bley 1985
Sextet Carla Bley 1987
Duets Carla Bley with Steve Swallow1988
Fleur Carnivore Carla Bley 1989
The Very Big Carla Bley Band Carla Bley 1977
Go Together Carla Bley with Steve Swallow 1992
Big Band Theory Carla Bley 1993
Songs with Legs Carla Bley with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow 1994
The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church Carla Bley 1996
Fancy Chamber Music Carla Bley 1998
Are We There Yet? Carla Bley with Steve Swallow1999
4x4 Carla Bley 2000
Looking for America (album) Carla Bley 2003
The Lost Chords Carla Bley 2004
The Lost Chords find Paolo Fresu Carla Bley 2007
Appearing Nightly Carla Bley 2008
Carla's Christmas Carols Carla Bley 2009

Source: [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carla Bley</span> American jazz musician (1936–2023)

Carla Bley 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, as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer, Robert Wyatt, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Swallow</span> American jazz bassist and composer

Steve Swallow is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Mantler</span> Austrian jazz trumpeter and composer

Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.

<i>Escalator over the Hill</i> 1971 studio album by Carla Bley and Paul Haines

Escalator over the Hill is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a "chronotransduction", with "words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler", performed by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra.

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra was an American jazz group, founded by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler in 1965, to perform orchestral avant-garde jazz.

New Music Distribution Service was a non-profit record distributor based in New York City. It was founded in 1972 by Carla Bley and Michael Mantler as a means of distributing artist produced recordings of, primarily, experimental contemporary music. It was a program of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association (JCOA). The NMDS began by distributing recordings released by many different independent labels and artists, including Nodlew, Jahari, Gibex, Philip Glass's Chatham Square label, and many others. Several international labels such as Incus and ECM were also included in their catalogs. The biggest selling album in NMDS history was the ECM release of Return to Forever, which strained the seams at the service and led to ECM's first US major distribution deal.

Gary Valente is a jazz trombonist.

Karen Mantler is an American jazz pianist, singer, and composer. She is the daughter of Carla Bley and Michael Mantler.

<i>European Tour 1977</i> 1978 studio album by The Carla Bley Band

European Tour 1977 is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley. Recorded in 1977 in Munich, Germany, it was released on the Watt/ECM label in 1978.

<i>Dinner Music</i> 1977 studio album by Carla Bley

Dinner Music is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in 1976 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1977.

<i>Musique Mecanique</i> 1979 studio album by Carla Bley

Musique Mecanique is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in 1978 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1979.

<i>Social Studies</i> (Carla Bley album) 1981 studio album by Carla Bley

Social Studies is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded in 1980 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1981.

<i>Live!</i> (Carla Bley album) 1982 live album by Carla Bley

Live! is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1981 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1982.

<i>I Hate to Sing</i> 1984 live album by Carla Bley

I Hate to Sing is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded at the Great American Music Hall in 1981 combined with three tracks recorded at Grog Kill Studios in 1983 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1984.

<i>Heavy Heart</i> (album) 1984 studio album by Carla Bley

Heavy Heart is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded in 1983 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1984.

<i>Fleur Carnivore</i> 1989 live album by Carla Bley

Fleur Carnivore is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded at the Jazzhus Montmartre in 1988 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1989.

<i>Big Band Theory</i> 1993 studio album by Carla Bley

Big Band Theory is an album by the American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1993.

<i>The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church</i> 1996 live album by The Carla Bley Big Band

The Carla Bley Big Band Goes to Church is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in Perugia, Italy as part of the Umbria Jazz Festival and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1996.

<i>Appearing Nightly</i> 2008 live album by Carla Bley and Her Remarkable Big Band

Appearing Nightly is a live album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley, recorded in Paris in 2006 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 2008. Bley's compositions and arrangements incorporate many references to big bands and jazz standards from the swing era. The album contains two compositions commissioned by the Jazz Orchestra of Sardinia, and a suite inspired by nightclubs and big bands of the 1950s commissioned for the Monterey Jazz Festival.

This is a list of works by American jazz musician Carla Bley.

References

  1. "Carla Bley Obituary". The Guardian. 19 October 2023.
  2. Iverson, Ethan (13 May 2018). "A Lifetime of Carla Bley". The New Yorker.
  3. "On Her Own: Carla Bley; 6. The New Music Distribution Service". July 1, 2003. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  4. "WATT Records discography". JazzLists. Retrieved January 26, 2024.