\n<\/p>\n
On a recent afternoon at the New School, the Tishman Auditorium vibrated with the hum of voices. The sound started so imperceptibly that it took a while to realize that it came from the 10 singers who appeared motionless, lined up in front of microphones.<\/p>\n
As the low drone grew louder, individual voices peeled off with microtonal shudders and ululations, and foghorn-like trombone blasts wormed their way through the vocal texture. Eventually, a 20-piece jazz orchestra joined in, forming a vast mushroom cloud of sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever it is can\u2019t have a name,\u201d a spectral voice intoned, \u201csince it makes no difference what you call it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The ensemble, made up of students and faculty members, was rehearsing \u201cEscalator Over the Hill\u201d by Carla Bley with lyrics by Paul Haines for a performance on Friday. Remarkably, it will be the staged American premiere of this masterpiece of 1970s experimentalism. In an essay<\/a>, Bley, who died last year<\/a>, wrote that the work was conceived as a jazz opera, though \u201cthe term \u2018opera\u2019 was used loosely from the start, an overstatement by two people who didn\u2019t have to watch their words.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When a recording was released in 1971, the album cover identified it as a \u201cchronotransduction,\u201d an invented term playing on time and conversion. Whatever it is, \u201cEscalator\u201d became a cult album.<\/p>\n The pianist and composer Arturo O\u2019Farrill, who played with Bley and now teaches at the New School, said in an interview that a couple of things might have kept the work from being staged: the composer\u2019s gender and the expense of putting on a work of such ambitious dimensions. With vocal styles spanning classical, pop and experimental rock, it\u2019s a challenge to cast and difficult to fit into a traditional opera house.<\/p>\n O\u2019Farrill said that the hybrid style \u2014 the question of what to call it \u2014 was confusing to many. \u201cIt\u2019s not acceptable jazz to the gatekeepers,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clearly some sort of monstrous hybrid, something that doesn\u2019t stay quietly in its lane.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The sprawling work, blending Indian classical traditions, jazz, rock and free improvisation, was recorded over three years with a breathtaking lineup of stars: Jack Bruce from Cream, a not-yet-famous Linda Ronstadt, the saxophonist Gato Barbieri, the guitarist John McLaughlin and the cornetist Don Cherry, known from his work with Ornette Coleman. Bley\u2019s 4-year-old daughter, Karen Mantler, who would grow up to become a jazz pianist and composer, also contributed vocals. In footage from the recording sessions, you can see her<\/a> stand at a microphone wearing headphones that smother much of her head, eyes fixed in concentration as she interjects \u201criding uneasily\u201d in one of the early numbers.<\/p>\n Escalator over the Hill<\/em><\/p>\n Again no choice<\/em><\/p>\n For the poor pale house<\/em><\/p>\n Riding uneasily<\/em><\/p>\n Over the Hill<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In a phone interview, Mantler recalled learning her part by heart as her mother sang the words into her ear. \u201cI had a few lines where I did not understand what it meant,\u201d she said laughing, \u201calthough I don\u2019t think anyone did.\u201d<\/p>\n Set at a seedy hotel, \u201cEscalator\u201d unfolds in a kaleidoscope of voices that is closer to Dylan Thomas\u2019s radio play \u201cUnder Milk Wood\u201d than to narrative music theater. \u201cIt\u2019s surreal,\u201d Mantler said. \u201cIt\u2019s like stepping into a series of rooms and each of them is different.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n O\u2019Farrill said that for all the stylistic eclecticism, there is a thematic cohesion to \u201cEscalator\u201d that sets it apart from other jazz works of this scale. \u201cLike all large works, this chronotransduction is architectural, with supporting points and balance points,\u201d he said. \u201cThe \u2018Hotel Overture,\u2019 for example, is a piece of foundational writing that supports the entire work. We don\u2019t get that a lot in jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 1990s, Bley authorized a new orchestration of \u201cEscalator\u201d by Jeff Friedman and led a handful of live performances across Europe. Mantler, who worked on that project as her mother\u2019s assistant and performed in some of the concerts, said Bley had always wanted to make the work available for performance. \u201cShe would have liked to have seen it turned into a theater piece,\u201d Mantler said, \u201cbut it required a lot of funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It also requires nerves to take on parts that had been defined by such musical legends. But O\u2019Farrill, who teaches an ensemble class that focuses on Bley\u2019s music, said Bley would never have wanted any musician to emulate another\u2019s performance. \u201cIt was never meant to be set in amber,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course they have big shoes to fill,\u201d he added. \u201cBut should they fill them like the people who performed on that record? If Carla were here, she\u2019d be saying: \u2018Absolutely not.\u2019 Because the integrity was not in the performance, it was in her writing.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Farrill said that the real challenge in taking on \u201cEscalator\u201d lay in matching the emotional intensity of the recording. \u201cYou have to press the crayon harder than you do with most jazz that we\u2019re taught. There\u2019s a gritty aspect to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n During a hard-driving passage in the rehearsal, the conductor, Keller Coker, broke off and urged the brass players to bring more wildness to their sound: \u201cYou\u2019re playing in a barn. You\u2019re next to the prize bull. Mix it up!\u201d The students repeated the section with rattling intensity and splintered overblown notes from the saxophones. The sound seemed to shudder like a pot about to blow its lid.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has to come from your own experience,\u201d O\u2019Farrill said he told his students. \u201cFind your own crucible of pain. That\u2019s where you\u2019re going to find your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n