All Topics  
Escalator over the Hill

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Escalator over the Hill
 
 
  Topics Escalator over the Hill Topic Home

Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines
Paul Haines (poet)

Paul Haines was a poet and jazz lyricist. Born in Vassar, Michigan, Haines eventually settled in Canada.Haines's best-known work is Escalator over the Hill, a collaboration with Carla Bley....
, adaptation and music by Carla Bley
Carla Bley

Carla Bley, n?e Borg, is an United States jazz composer, jazz piano, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is 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, Ji...
, production and coordination by Michael Mantler
Michael Mantler

Michael Mantler is an Austrian trumpeter and composer in new jazz and contemporary music....
", performed by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Jazz Composer's Orchestra

Jazz Composer's Orchestra was a jazz group founded in 1965 to further avant-garde jazz in New York City. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style....
.

critically acclaimed opus is more than two hours long, was recorded in three years, 1968 to 1971, and originally released as a triple LP
Gramophone record

A gramophone record is an analog signal sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc....
 box, also containing a booklet with all the words, photos and information about the musicians and their roles.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Escalator over the Hill'
Start a new discussion about 'Escalator over the Hill'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Escalator over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
, but it was released as a "chronotransduction" with "words by Paul Haines
Paul Haines (poet)

Paul Haines was a poet and jazz lyricist. Born in Vassar, Michigan, Haines eventually settled in Canada.Haines's best-known work is Escalator over the Hill, a collaboration with Carla Bley....
, adaptation and music by Carla Bley
Carla Bley

Carla Bley, n?e Borg, is an United States jazz composer, jazz piano, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is 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, Ji...
, production and coordination by Michael Mantler
Michael Mantler

Michael Mantler is an Austrian trumpeter and composer in new jazz and contemporary music....
", performed by the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
Jazz Composer's Orchestra

Jazz Composer's Orchestra was a jazz group founded in 1965 to further avant-garde jazz in New York City. Carla Bley and Michael Mantler were important in its organization and style....
.

History

The critically acclaimed opus is more than two hours long, was recorded in three years, 1968 to 1971, and originally released as a triple LP
Gramophone record

A gramophone record is an analog signal sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc....
 box, also containing a booklet with all the words, photos and information about the musicians and their roles. Side six of the original LPs ended in a loop, the last track "... And It's Again" vanishing in a humming sound like distant insects, continuing infinitely on manual record players.

In 1997, a live version of Escalator over the Hill, re-orchestrated by Jeff Friedman, was performed for the first time in Cologne, Germany
Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants....
, then, in 1998, "the Escalator" toured Europe, and another live performance took place in May 2006 in Essen, Germany
Essen

Essen is a city in the center of the Ruhr Area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Located on the Ruhr River, its population of approximately 579,000 makes it the 7th- or 8th-largest-city in Germany....
.

The many musicians collectively involved in the original recording act in various combinations (listed below as "chronotransductional"), covering a wide range of musical genres, from Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill , was a Germany, and in his later years American, composer active from the 1920s until his death. He was a leading composer for the theatre....
's theater music to free jazz, rock and world music
World music

The term world music includes Traditional music of any culture that are created and played by indigenous musicians or that are "closely informed or guided by indigenous music of the regions of their origin," including Western World music ....
 (although that term didn't exist yet), summing up "much of the creative energy that was loose between 1968 and 1972".

Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an United Statesn Painting, Printmaking, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the Art movement known as pop art....
's Viva
Viva (Warhol superstar)

Viva is an United Statesn actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar....
 acts as narrator, likewise Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
 also appears on bass and vocals. Among the stellar vocalists is a young (and still relatively unknown) Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt

Maria Linda Ronstadt , known as Linda Ronstadt, is an United States popular music Singing and entertainer whose vocal styles in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career....
, in addition to Jeanne Lee
Jeanne Lee

Jeanne Lee was a jazz singer. Born in New York, New York, she was one of the foremost exponents of free jazz in the vocal application. Her singing style included moods that were sensual, somber, and sensitive....
, Paul Jones
Paul Jones (singer)

Paul Jones is an England singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.In 1962 Jones became resident singer with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated ....
, Carla Bley
Carla Bley

Carla Bley, n?e Borg, is an United States jazz composer, jazz piano, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is 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, Ji...
, Don Preston
Don Preston

Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an United States rock and roll musician....
, Sheila Jordan
Sheila Jordan

Sheila Jordan is an United States Jazz singer and songwriter.Her mainstream success has been somewhat limited, but Jordan's music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise entire lyrics; Scott Yannow describes her as "[o]ne of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers."...
, and Bley's and Mantler's then-4-year-old daughter Karen Mantler
Karen Mantler

Karen Mantler is an American jazz musician and composer. She is the daughter of Carla Bley and Michael Mantler.Mantler appeared on the album Escalator Over the Hill as a child, which featured both her parents....
.

In 2006, Paul Haines' daughter, Canadian musician Emily Haines
Emily Haines

Emily Haines is a member of the bands Metric , Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton and Broken Social Scene.She has contributed backing vocals to albums by other Broken Social Scene members, such as Jason Collett and Kevin Drew....
, would adapt the Escalator over the Hill cover art for her own first widely-distributed album under her own name, Knives Don't Have Your Back
Knives Don't Have Your Back

Knives Don't Have Your Back is the first album to be officially released by Canadian artist Emily Haines . The album was released in September 2006 on Last Gang Records....
.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "Hotel Overture"– 13:11
Side two
  1. "This Is Here..." – 6:02
  2. "Like Animals" – 1:21
  3. "Escalator Over the Hill" – 4:57
  4. "Stay Awake" – 1:31
  5. "Ginger and David" – 1:39
  6. "Song to Anything That Moves" – 2:22
Side three
  1. "Eoth Theme" – 0:35
  2. "Businessmen" – 5:38
  3. "Ginger and David Theme" – 0:57
  4. "Why" – 2:19
  5. "It's Not What You Do" – 0:17
  6. "Detective Writer Daughter" – 3:16
  7. "Doctor Why" – 1:28
  8. "Slow Dance (Transductory Music)" – 1:50
  9. "Smalltown Agonist" – 5:24
 Side four
  1. "End of Head" – 0:38
  2. "Over Her Head" – 2:38
  3. "Little Pony Soldier" – 4:36
  4. "Oh Say Can You Do?" – 1:11
  5. "Holiday in Risk" – 3:10
  6. "Holiday in Risk Theme" – 0:52
Side five
  1. "A.I.R. (All India Radio)" – 3:58
  2. "Rawalpindi Blues" – 12:44
Side six
  1. "End of Rawalpindi" – 9:40
  2. "End of Animals" – 1:26
  3. "... And It's Again" – 9:55


  • "... And It's Again" would later be expanded to a length of 27:17 for CD release.


Personnel

Principal Cast
  • Jack, Parrot: Jack Bruce
    Jack Bruce

    John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
  • Leader, Mutant, Voice, Desert Women: Carla Bley
  • Sand Shepherd: Don Cherry
    Don Cherry (jazz)

    Don Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz trumpeter whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and who would go on to live and work with a wide variety of musicians in many parts of the world....
  • Ginger: Linda Ronstadt
    Linda Ronstadt

    Maria Linda Ronstadt , known as Linda Ronstadt, is an United States popular music Singing and entertainer whose vocal styles in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career....
  • Ginger II: Jeanne Lee
    Jeanne Lee

    Jeanne Lee was a jazz singer. Born in New York, New York, she was one of the foremost exponents of free jazz in the vocal application. Her singing style included moods that were sensual, somber, and sensitive....
  • David: Paul Jones
    Paul Jones (singer)

    Paul Jones is an England singer, actor, harmonica player, and radio personality and television presenter.In 1962 Jones became resident singer with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated ....
  • Doctor, Lion: Don Preston
    Don Preston

    Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an United States rock and roll musician....
  • Viva: Viva
    Viva (Warhol superstar)

    Viva is an United Statesn actress, writer and a former Warhol superstar....
  • Cecil Clark: Tod Papageorge
  • His Friends: Charlie Haden
    Charlie Haden

    Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman....
    , Steve Ferguson
  • Calliope Bill: Bill Leonard
  • Roomer: Bill Stewart
  • Ancient Roomer: Karen Mantler
    Karen Mantler

    Karen Mantler is an American jazz musician and composer. She is the daughter of Carla Bley and Michael Mantler.Mantler appeared on the album Escalator Over the Hill as a child, which featured both her parents....
  • Loudspeaker: Roswell Rudd
    Roswell Rudd

    Roswell Rudd is an United States jazz trombone and composer.Although skilled in all styles of jazz and other genres of music, he is known primarily for his work in free jazz and avant-garde jazz....
  • Used Woman: Sheila Jordan
    Sheila Jordan

    Sheila Jordan is an United States Jazz singer and songwriter.Her mainstream success has been somewhat limited, but Jordan's music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise entire lyrics; Scott Yannow describes her as "[o]ne of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers."...
  • Operasinger: Rosalind Hupp
  • Nurse: Jane Blackstone
  • Yodelling Ventriloquist: Howard Johnson
    Howard Johnson (jazz musician)

    Howard Louis Johnson in Montgomery, Alabama, is a self-taught post-bebop jazz musician known mainly for his work on tuba and baritone saxophone, although he plays the bass clarinet, other reed instruments, cornet and penny whistle as well....
  • Therapist: Timothy Marquand
  • Dad: Perry Robinson
    Perry Robinson

    Perry Morris Robinson is an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He is the son of the noted composer Earl Robinson....
  • Phantoms, Multiple Public Members, Hotelpeople, Women, Men, Flies, Bullfrogs, Mindsweepers, Speakers, Blindman:


Musicians (alphabetical)
  • Gato Barbieri
    Gato Barbieri

    Leandro Barbieri better known as Gato Barbieri is an Argentina jazz tenor saxophone and composer who rose to fame during the free jazz movement in the 1960s and from his latin jazz recordings in the 1970s....
     - tenor saxophone
  • Souren Baronian - clarinet
  • Karl Berger
    Karl Berger

    Karl Hanns Berger is a musicologist with a PhD in Music Sociology, jazz composer, jazz vibraphonist and jazz piano. Together with Ornette Coleman and Ingrid Sertso he founded the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York....
     - vibraphone
  • Carla Bley
    Carla Bley

    Carla Bley, n?e Borg, is an United States jazz composer, jazz piano, organist and band leader. An important figure in the Free Jazz movement of the 1960s, she is 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, Ji...
     - organ, celeste, chimes, calliope, piano
  • Sam Brown
    Sam Brown (guitarist)

    Sam T. Brown was a jazz guitarist. He was unusual in that he performed in a generally jazz-rock format, while performing in Keith Jarrett's ensembles that sometimes veered close to a free jazz style....
     - guitar
  • Jack Bruce
    Jack Bruce

    John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scotland musician, musical composer and singer. He is best-known as an electric bass guitarist, harmonica player and piano, and was most famous as a vocalist and the bass guitarist for the 1960s rock band Cream ....
     - bass, vocal
  • John Buckingham - tuba
  • Sam Burtis - trombone
  • Bob Carlisle
    Bob Carlisle

    Bob Carlisle is an Grammy Award and Dove Award-winning American musician who performs Christian music. He performed with several bands, most notably Allies , before launching a solo career....
     - French horn
  • Don Cherry
    Don Cherry (jazz)

    Don Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz trumpeter whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and who would go on to live and work with a wide variety of musicians in many parts of the world....
     - trumpet
  • Roger Dawson - congas
  • Sharon Freeman
    Sharon Freeman

    Sharon Freeman is a jazz piano and horn . She also writes musical arrangements.Freeman played French horn for the jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, Gil Evans's 1973 album Svengali , and in 1983 she worked on a piece of jazz Christmas music.....
     - French horn
  • Charlie Haden
    Charlie Haden

    Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman....
     - bass
  • Peggy Imig - clarinet
  • Jack Jeffers - bass trombone
  • Leroy Jenkins - violin
  • Howard Johnson
    Howard Johnson (jazz musician)

    Howard Louis Johnson in Montgomery, Alabama, is a self-taught post-bebop jazz musician known mainly for his work on tuba and baritone saxophone, although he plays the bass clarinet, other reed instruments, cornet and penny whistle as well....
     - tuba
  • Sheila Jordan
    Sheila Jordan

    Sheila Jordan is an United States Jazz singer and songwriter.Her mainstream success has been somewhat limited, but Jordan's music has earned praise from many critics, particularly for her ability to improvise entire lyrics; Scott Yannow describes her as "[o]ne of the most consistently creative of all jazz singers."...
     - vocal
  • Jimmy Knepper
    Jimmy Knepper

    James M. Knepper was an United States jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus....
     - trombone
  • Jeanne Lee
    Jeanne Lee

    Jeanne Lee was a jazz singer. Born in New York, New York, she was one of the foremost exponents of free jazz in the vocal application. Her singing style included moods that were sensual, somber, and sensitive....
     - vocal
  • Jimmy Lyons
    Jimmy Lyons

    Jimmy Lyons was an alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit....
     - alto saxophone
  • Michael Mantler
    Michael Mantler

    Michael Mantler is an Austrian trumpeter and composer in new jazz and contemporary music....
     - prepared piano, trumpet, valve trombone
  • Ron McClure
    Ron McClure

    Ron McClure , a double bass, has played in hard bop, jazz-rock, and free and bebop sessions and bands.He started on piano at age five, and later played accordion and bass....
     - bass
  • John McLaughlin
    John McLaughlin (musician)

    John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an England jazz fusion guitarist and composer. He played with Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his landmark electric jazz-fusion albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. His 1970s electric band, Mahavishnu Orchestra, perfo...
     - guitar
  • Bill Morimando - orchestra bells, celeste
  • Paul Motian
    Paul Motian

    Stephen Paul Motian , is an United States Jazz drumming, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.First coming to prominence in the late '50s with the pioneering trio of pianist Bill Evans, Motian has since worked in an array of contexts, and has led a number of groups....
     - drums, dumbec
  • Nancy Newton - viola
  • Don Preston
    Don Preston

    Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an United States rock and roll musician....
     - Moog synthesizer
  • Enrico Rava
    Enrico Rava

    Enrico Rava , is a prolific jazz trumpeter and arguably the most well known Italian jazz musician. He originally played trombone, changing to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis....
     - trumpet
  • Perry Robinson
    Perry Robinson

    Perry Morris Robinson is an American jazz clarinetist and composer. He is the son of the noted composer Earl Robinson....
     - clarinet
  • Linda Ronstadt
    Linda Ronstadt

    Maria Linda Ronstadt , known as Linda Ronstadt, is an United States popular music Singing and entertainer whose vocal styles in a variety of genres have resonated with the general public over the course of her four-decade career....
     - vocal
  • Roswell Rudd
    Roswell Rudd

    Roswell Rudd is an United States jazz trombone and composer.Although skilled in all styles of jazz and other genres of music, he is known primarily for his work in free jazz and avant-garde jazz....
     - trombone
  • Calo Scott - cello
  • Michael Snow
    Michael Snow

    Michael Snow, Order of Canada is a Canada artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music....
     - trumpet
  • Chris Woods
    Chris Woods (musician)

    Chris Woods was an American jazz alto saxophonist.Woods played locally in Memphis early in his career before moving to St. Louis to play with the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra and George Hudson....
     - baritone saxophone
  • Richard Youngstein - bass


Musicians (chronotransductional) Orchestra (& Hotel Lobby Band)
  • Carla Bley (piano)
  • Jimmy Lyons (alto saxophone)
  • Gato Barbieri (tenor saxophone)
  • Chris Woods (baritone saxophone)
  • Michael Mantler, Enrico Rava (trumpet)
  • Roswell Rudd, Sam Burtis, Jimmy Knepper (trombone)
  • Jack Jeffers (bass trombone)
  • Bob Carlisle, Sharon Freeman (French horn)
  • John Buckingham (tuba)
  • Nancy Newton (viola)
  • Karl Berger (vibraphone)
  • Charlie Haden (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)
  • Roger Dawson (congas)
  • Bill Morimando (orchestra bells, celeste).


Jack's Traveling Band
  • Carla Bley (organ)
  • John McLaughlin (guitar)
  • Jack Bruce (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)


Desert Band
  • Carla Bley (organ)
  • Don Cherry (trumpet)
  • Souren Baronia (clarinet)
  • Leroy Jenkins (violin)
  • Calo Scott (cello)
  • Sam Brown (guitar)
  • Ron McClure (bass)
  • Paul Motian (dumbec)


Original Hotel Amateur Band
  • Carla Bley (piano)
  • Michael Snow (trumpet)
  • Michael Mantler (valve trombone)
  • Howard Johnson (tuba)
  • Perry Robinson, Peggy Imig (clarinet)
  • Nancy Newton (viola)
  • Richard Youngstein (bass)
  • Paul Motian (drums)


Phantom Music
  • Carla Bley (organ, celeste, chimes, calliope)
  • Michael Mantler (prepared piano)
  • Don Preston (Moog synthesizer)


Awards

  • Jazz Album of the Year 1972 by a Melody Maker
    Melody Maker

    Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was 1926 in music as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 in British music it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express....
     Readers Poll
  • French Grand Prix du Disque in 1973


External links

  • at
  • at
  • by Carla Bley. Written in 1972 shortly after the release of the Escalator
  • @
  • *