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m This is an interesting fact but it is largely irrelevant here. Bley relates in her essay 'Accomplishing Escalator Over the Hill' (March 1972) that recording for EotH was done by November 1971. Bruce's session with Zappa was in November 1972, so it's not especially surprising that Bruce would be working on other projects.
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{{Infobox album | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums -->
| Name name = Escalator Overover the Hill
| Type type = [[Album]]studio
| Artist artist = [[Carla Bley]] and [[Paul Haines (poet)|Paul Haines]]
| Cover cover = Escalator_Over_The_Hill-CD.jpg
| Releasedalt = 1971 =
| Recorded released = 1968–19711971
| recorded = 1968–1971
| Genre = [[Avant-garde jazz]], [[post-bop]], [[folk opera]]▼
| Lengthvenue = 103:35 =
| studio =
| Label = [[Jazz Composers' Orchestra|JCOA]] Records (LP)<br />WATT (CD)
▲| Genre genre = {{hlist|[[Avant-garde jazz]], |[[post-bop]], |[[folkopera|rock opera]]|[[Third Stream]]}}
| Producer = [[Michael Mantler]]▼
| length = 103:35
| Chronology = [[Jazz Composer's Orchestra]]▼
| Lastlabel album = ''[[The Jazz ComposerComposers's Orchestra|JCOA]] Records (albumLP)|The<br Jazz/>[[WATT Composer's OrchestraRecords]]''<br />(1968CD)
▲| Producer producer = [[Michael Mantler]]
| This album = '''''Escalator Over the Hill'''''<br />(1971)
▲| Chronology chronology = [[Jazz Composer's Orchestra]]
| Next album = ''[[Relativity Suite]]''<br />(1973)
| prev_title = [[The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (album)|The Jazz Composer's Orchestra]]
| Misc = {{Extra chronology▼
| prev_year = 1968
| Artist = [[Carla Bley]]
| Type next_title = [[AlbumRelativity Suite]]
| next_year = 1973
| Last album = ''[[Jazz Realities]]'' <br /> (1966)▼
▲| Misc misc = {{Extra chronology
| This album = '''''Escalator Over the Hill''''' <br /> (1971)
| artist | Next album = ''[[TropicCarla AppetitesBley]]'' <br /> (1974)
| type = studio
}}▼
▲ | Last album prev_title = ''[[Jazz Realities]]'' <br /> (1966)
| prev_year = 1966
| title = Escalator over the Hill
| year = 1971
| next_title = [[Tropic Appetites]]
| next_year = 1974
▲ }}
}}
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = [[All About Jazz]]
| rev1Score = (favorable)<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17872 |title=Carla Bley and Paul Haines: Escalator Over the Hill |first=Trevor |last=MacLaren |work=allaboutjazz.com |year=2011 |accessdateaccess-date=18 July 2011}}</ref>
| rev2 = [[AllmusicAllMusic]]
| rev2Score = {{Rating|3|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.allmusic.com/album/r135552 |title=Escalator Over the Hill -– Carla Bley &#124; AllMusic |first=Richard S. |last=Ginell |work=allmusic.com |year=2011 |accessdateaccess-date=18 July 2011}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Stylus Magazine|Stylus]]''
| rev3Score = (favorable)<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=27 |title=Stranded: Escalator Over the Hill -– Article -– Stylus Magazine |first=Marcello |last=Carlin |work=stylusmagazine.com |year=2011 |accessdateaccess-date=18 July 2011}}</ref>
|rev4 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide]]''
| rev4Score = {{rating|5|5}}<ref name=RSJRG> {{Cite book
| editor-last = Swenson
| editor-first = J. (Editor)
| author-link =
| year = 1985
| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide
|url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen
|url-access=registration
| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone
| location = USA
| isbn = 0-394-72643-X
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen/page/26 26]
| pages = 26
}}</ref>
|rev5 = ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings]]''
|rev5score = {{Rating|3.5|4}}<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Cook (journalist)|author2 = Brian Morton|author2-link = Brian Morton (Scottish writer)|title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings|edition = 9th|series = [[The Penguin Guide to Jazz]]|year = 2008|publisher = Penguin|location = London|isbn = 978-0-14-103401-0 | page = 136}}</ref>
}}
 
'''''Escalator Overover the Hill''''' (or '''''EOTH''''') is mostly referred to as a [[jazz]] [[opera]], but it was released as a "chronotransduction", with "words by [[Paul Haines (poet)|Paul Haines]], adaptation and music by [[Carla Bley]], production and coordination by [[Michael Mantler]]", performed by the [[Jazz Composer's Orchestra]].
 
==History==
''Escalator Overover the Hill'' is more than an hour and a half long and was recorded over three years (1968 to 1971). It was originally released as a triple [[gramophone record|LP]] box which also contained a booklet with lyrics, photos and profiles of the musicians. Side six of the original LPs ended in a [[locked groove]], the final track "...And It's Again" continuing infinitely on manual [[record player#Turntable technology|record player]]s. (For the CD reissue, the hum is allowed to play for almost 2017 minutes before slowly fading out.)
 
In 1997, a live version of ''Escalator Overover the Hill,'' re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman, was performed for the first time in [[Cologne|Cologne, Germany]]. In 1998, "Escalator" toured Europe. Another live performance took place in May 2006 in [[Essen|Essen]], Germany]].
 
The musicians involved in the original recording play in various combinations, covering a wide range of musical genres, from [[Kurt Weill]]'s theater music, to free jazz, rock and [[Indian music]]. Writer [[Stuart Broomer]] considers this to be a summing up "much of the creative energy that was loose between 1968 and 1972".<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000241DG [[Stuart Broomer]]. ''Escalator Over the Hill''. Editorial review] by [[Stuart Broomer]] at [[amazon.com]], retrieved on 2008-09-23</ref>
 
[[Viva (Warhol Superstaractress)|Viva]] acts as narrator. [[Jack Bruce]] also appears on bass and vocals (due to the album's long production, he also appeared on [[Frank Zappa]]'s album [[Apostrophe (album)|Apostrophe]], playing bass on the title track). Among the vocalists is a young (and still relatively unknown) [[Linda Ronstadt]], in addition to [[Jeanne Lee]], [[Paul Jones (singer)|Paul Jones]], [[Carla Bley]], [[Don Preston]], [[Sheila Jordan]], and Bley's and Mantler's then-4-year-old daughter [[Karen Mantler]].
 
==Reception==
Jonathon Cott's ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' article stated: "Like an electric transformer, ''Escalator Over the Hill'' synthesizes and draws on an enormous range of musical materials -– raga, jazz, rock, ring modulated piano sounds, all brought together through Carla Bley's extraordinary formal sense and ability to unify individual but diverse musical sections by means of the editing of the record medium... The opera is an international musical encounter of the first order."<ref>Cott, J., 'Escalator': Grand, Horse & Jazz Opers ''Rolling Stone'', March 4, 1971 p.10</ref>
 
Marcello Carlin, writing for ''[[Stylus Magazine]]'', considers the album to be "the greatest record ever made." He said: "No protest, no social commentary. No expression of love, of grief, of hope, of despair. It is literally whatever you want to make of it. It is devoid of every quality which you might assume would qualify it to be the greatest of all records. And yet it is that tabula rasa in its heart, the blank space which may well exist at the very heart of all music, revealing the hard truth that we have to fill in the blanks, we have to interpret what is being played and sung, and our interpretation is the only one which can possibly be valid, as we cannot discern any perspective other than our own."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Carlin |first1=Marcello |title=Stranded: Escalator Over the Hill |url=http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=27 |website=Stylus Magazine |access-date=21 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030909233248/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=27 |archive-date=9 September 2003 |date=1 September 2003}}</ref>
 
==Track listing==
;'''Side one'''
#"Hotel Overture" – 13:11
;'''Side two'''
#"This Is Here..." – 6:02
#"Like Animals" – 1:21
#"Escalator Overover the Hill" – 4:57
#"Stay Awake" – 1:31
#"Ginger and David" – 1:39
#"Song to Anything That Moves" – 2:22
;'''Side three'''
#"EothEOTH Theme" – 0:35
#"Businessmen" – 5:38
#"Ginger and David Theme" – 0:57
#"Why" – 2:19
#"It's Not What You Do" – 0:17
#"Detective Writer Daughter" – 3:16
#"Doctor Why" – 1:28
#"Slow Dance (Transductory Music)" – 1:50
#"Smalltown Agonist" – 5:24
;'''Side four'''
#"End of Head" – 0:38
#"Over Her Head" – 2:38
#"Little Pony Soldier" – 4:36
#"Oh Say Can You Do?" – 1:11
#"Holiday in Risk" – 3:10
#"Holiday in Risk Theme" – 0:52
;'''Side five'''
#"A.I.R. (All India Radio)" – 3:58
#"Rawalpindi Blues" – 12:44
;'''Side six'''
#"End of Rawalpindi" – 9:40
#"End of Animals" – 1:26
#"... And It's Again" – 98:55 (ends with a locked groove)
 
*The CD release has sides one to three on CD 1, and sides four to six on CD 2.
*"... And It's Again" would later be expanded to a length of 27:17 for CD release, with 17:23 minutes of the humming sound found on the inner groove of the LP.
*"... And It's Again" runs for 27:17 on the CD release, with the locked groove at the end of the original LP playing for about 17 minutes. This is followed by a hidden track (starting at 27:02) consisting of calliope music and Bill Leonard saying “Oh say can you do?”, followed by faint laughter.
 
==Personnel==
;===Principal Castcast===
* ''Jack, Parrot:'' [[Jack Bruce]]
* ''Leader, Mutant, Voice, Desert Women:'' [[Carla Bley]]
* ''Sand Shepherd:'' [[Don Cherry (jazz)|Don Cherry]]
* ''Ginger:'' [[Linda Ronstadt]]
Line 103 ⟶ 116:
* ''David:'' [[Paul Jones (singer)|Paul Jones]]
* ''Doctor, Lion:'' [[Don Preston]]
* ''Viva:'' [[Viva (Warhol Superstaractress)|Viva]]
* ''Cecil Clark:'' [[Tod Papageorge]]
* ''His Friends:'' [[Charlie Haden]], Steve Ferguson
Line 119 ⟶ 132:
<div style="margin-left:1.5em">Jane Blackstone, Carla Bley, Jonathan Cott, [[Sharon Freeman]], Steve Gebhardt, Tyrus Gerlach, Eileen Hale, Rosalind Hupp, Jack Jeffers, Howard Johnson, Sheila Jordan, [[Michael Mantler]], Timothy Marquand, Nancy Newton, Tod Papageorge, Don Preston, Bill Roughen, Phyllis Schneider, [[Bob Stewart (musician)|Bob Stewart]], Pat Stewart, Viva</div>
 
;===Musicians (alphabetical)===
* [[Gato Barbieri]] -– tenor saxophone
* [[Souren Baronian]] -– clarinet
* [[Karl Berger]] -– vibraphone
* [[Carla Bley]] -– organ, celeste, chimes, calliope, piano
* [[Sam Brown (guitarist)|Sam Brown]] -– guitar
* [[Jack Bruce]] -– bass, vocal
* John Buckingham -– tuba
* Sam Burtis -– trombone
* [[Bob Carlisle]] -– French horn
* [[Don Cherry (jazz)|Don Cherry]] -– trumpet
* [[Roger Dawson]] -– congas, xylophone
* [[Sharon Freeman]] -– French horn
* [[Charlie Haden]] -– bass
* Peggy Imig -– clarinet
* Jack Jeffers -– bass trombone
* [[Leroy Jenkins (jazz musician)|Leroy Jenkins]] -– violin
* [[Howard Johnson (jazz musician)|Howard Johnson]] -– tuba
* [[Sheila Jordan]] -– vocal
* [[Jimmy Knepper]] -– trombone
* [[Jeanne Lee]] -– vocal
* [[Jimmy Lyons]] -– alto saxophone
* [[Michael Mantler]] -– prepared piano, trumpet, valve trombone
* [[Ron McClure]] -– bass
* [[John McLaughlin (musician)|John McLaughlin]] -– guitar
* Bill Morimando -– orchestra bells, celeste
* [[Paul Motian]] -– drums, dumbec
* Nancy Newton -– viola
* [[Don Preston]] -– Moog synthesizer
* [[Enrico Rava]] -– trumpet
* [[Perry Robinson]] -– clarinet
* [[Linda Ronstadt]] -– vocal
* [[Roswell Rudd]] -– trombone
* [[Calo Scott]] -– cello
* [[Michael Snow]] -– trumpet
* [[Chris Woods (musician)|Chris Woods]] -– baritone saxophone
* Richard Youngstein -– bass
 
;===Musicians (chronotransductional)===
;====Orchestra (& Hotel Lobby Band)====
* Carla Bley (piano)
* Jimmy Lyons (alto saxophone)
Line 175 ⟶ 188:
* Bill Morimando (orchestra bells, celeste).
 
;====Jack's Traveling Band====
* Carla Bley (organ)
* John McLaughlin (guitar)
Line 181 ⟶ 194:
* Paul Motian (drums)
 
;====Desert Band====
* Carla Bley (organ)
* Don Cherry (trumpet)
* Souren BaroniaBaronian (clarinet)
* Leroy Jenkins (violin)
* Calo Scott (cello)
Line 191 ⟶ 204:
* Paul Motian (dumbec)
 
;====Original Hotel Amateur Band====
* Carla Bley (piano)
* Michael Snow (trumpet)
Line 201 ⟶ 214:
* Paul Motian (drums)
 
;====Phantom Music====
* Carla Bley (organ, celeste, chimes, calliope)
* Michael Mantler (prepared piano)
Line 207 ⟶ 220:
 
==Awards==
* Jazz Album of the Year 1972 by a [[Melody Maker]] Readers Poll<ref>{{cite news |last= Wilson|first=John S |date= 17 March 1974|title=Don't Call Carla's Jazz jazz |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/17/archives/don-t-call-carlas-jazz-jazz.html |work= [[The New York Times]]|location=New York |access-date=17 March 2021}} </ref>
* Jazz Album of the Year 1972 by a [[Melody Maker]] Readers Poll
* Oscar du meilleur disque de jazz moderne (best modern jazz album) in 1972, given by the [[Académie du Jazz]].<ref> {{cite web |url= http://www.academiedujazz.com/palmares-1972.html|title= Palmarès 1972 |date= |website= academiedujazz.com |publisher= Académie du jazz |access-date=17 March 2021}}</ref>
* French Grand Prix du Disque in 1973
 
==References==
{{Refbegin}}{{Reflist}}{{Refend}}
 
== External links ==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051216093827/http://www.wattxtrawatt.com/biokaren.htm Karen Mantler Biography] at [http://www.wattxtrawatt.com www.wattxtrawatt.com -– the Official Carla Bley Web Site]
*[http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Artists/Robinson/eoth.htm Jazz Composers Orchestra: Escalator Over the Hill] at [http://www.jazzdiscography.com www.jazzdiscography.com]
*[httphttps://www.angelfire.com/jazz/jm3/eoth_notes_accomp.html Accomplishing Escalator Over the Hill] by Carla Bley. Written in 1972 shortly after the release of the Escalator
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425014446/http://www.doomsdaycreativeenterprisesmattendahl.com/jco/jco.html The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Information Page]
*[http://jma.darwinmonkey.com/jmarc3mov/eoth.html film clips] @ [http://jmarc1web.50webs.com/ The John McLaughlin Archives]
*[http://cover-paradies.to/index.php?Module=ViewEntry&ID=562325 Album booklet]
*{{cite web | title=Carla Bley and Paul Haines' Escalator Over the Hill| date=8 June 2005 | url= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=17872| accessdateaccess-date=2006-01-18}}
*{{cite web | title=Stranded: Escalator Over the Hill -– Article -– Stylus Magazine| url=http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=27| accessdateaccess-date=2006-01-18}}
 
{{John McLaughlin}}
{{Carla Bley}}
{{Jazz Composer's Orchestra}}
 
{{Authority control}}
 
[[Category:Jazz Composer's Orchestra albums]]
[[Category:Concept albums]]
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[[Category:Avant-garde jazz albums]]
[[Category:1971 albums]]
[[Category:1971 operas]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Michael Mantler]]
[[Category:Paul Haines (poet) albums]]
[[Category:Rock operas]]
[[Category:Operas by Carla Bley]]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalator_over_the_Hill"