The New School Studio Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble performs Carla Bley’s Escalator Over the Hill

On May 2, _THE NEW SCHOOL STUDIO ORCHESTRA & VOCAL ENSEMBLE_ presents the U.S. PREMIERE PERFORMANCE OF CARLA BLEY’s landmark 1971 album, _Escalator Over the Hill_ .J.D. Considine captures the essence of Bley’s iconic work, writing in TIDAL magazine – “Whenever the topic of Great Albums of the 1970s crops up, certain titles invariably recur. There’s Fleetwood Mac’s _Rumours_ , Stevie Wonder’s _Innervisions_ , the Rolling Stones’ _Exile on Main St_ ., Miles Davis’ _Bitches Brew_ , Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_ , Michael Jackson’s _Off the Wall_ . But while reading through the recent tributes to the great jazz composer and pianist CARLA BLEY, who died on Oct. 17, at age 87, I was reminded of the masterwork that’s always missing from those lists: Bley’s _Escalator Over the Hill_ . Released in 1971, it announced itself as a “Chronotransduction” — an invented term meaning, roughly, “a transference of time” — but was otherwise thought of as a jazz opera, in the vein of rock operas like Tommy or Jesus Christ Superstar. Except the music on _Escalator Over the Hill_ goes well beyond the usual boundaries of genre. In addition to bracing bursts of free jazz, there are cabaret songs, snatches of country music, deep dives into jazz fusion, an excursion into Hindustani pop, elements of ambient music and nods to New York minimalism. Not to mention a fair amount of stuff that simply falls under the rubric “none of the above… The only thing that would make me happier than seeing a retrospective embrace of _Escalator Over the Hill_ as an album would be to see a corresponding burst of live performances worldwide. Honestly, you folks don’t know what you’re missing.” _JOIN US FOR THIS SPECIAL PRESENTATION OF A RARELY SEEN, ICONIC WORK._ _THE NEW SCHOOL STUDIO ORCHESTRA & VOCAL ENSEMBLE_ Performs _ESCALATOR OVER THE HILL_ MUSIC BY CARLA BLEY WORDS BY PAUL HAINES Keller Coker, Music Director and Conductor Aubrey Johnson, Vocalist Conductor with – Steve Cardenas, guitar Dirk Freymuth, electric sitar and shruti box Arturo O’Farrill, piano Matt Wilson, percussion _FREE WITH REGISTRATION/SPACE IS LIMITED._