ROBERT ASHLEY – Perfect Lives (Private Parts) - The Bar (LP-1980)

Label: Lovely Music, Ltd. – VR 4904

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1980

Style: Minimal, Improvisation

Recorded at Right Track Recording/ Lovely Music/ Vital Records, 1979.

Arranged By [Chorus Parts, Orchestrations] – Peter Gordon, Robert Ashley

Arranged By [Chorus Parts, Orchestrations], Co-producer – "Blue" Gene Tyranny

Mixed By – Joshua Harris, Peter Gordon, Robert Ashley

Producer – Peter Gordon

A - The Bar I .............................................................................. 15:23

B - The Bar II (continued) .......................................................... 12:44

Robert Ashley – voice

"Blue" Gene Tyranny – keyboards, piano, organ, clavinet

David Van Tieghem – percussion, chorus

Jill Kroesen – chorus

Note:

Perfect Lives - An opera in seven episodes

"The Bar" is episode four:

Rodney, the bartender, meets Buddy, the piano player.

This performance of "The Bar" was composed and produced in collaboration with "Blue" Gene Tyranny and Peter Gordon.

Robert Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques.

“Perfect Lives is generally accepted as Robert Ashley’s masterpiece, and is also a wonderful introduction to his work. This seven-part television opera had a long gestation period, and Ashley made a few attempts at recording it. In 1977, Private Parts (The Record) was released. It was a simple recording that consisted of Ashley’s voice, “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s piano, and a tabla player, credited only as “Kris”. This album contained “The Park” and “The Backyard”, which became the first and last sections, respectively, of Perfect Lives. By 1983, Ashley was performing a version of the piece with a group of like-minded musicians including Peter Gordon, David van Tieghem, and Jill Kroesen, many of whom were his former composition students at Mills College in Oakland, CA. This group recorded a complete version of all seven parts of Perfect Lives and released it on cassette (and eventually CD). “Perfect Lives (Private Parts): The Bar”, is a fascinating document of Ashley’s process. It represents a midpoint in the development of this piece. Released in 1980, “The Bar” is the exact center of Perfect Lives – part 4 of 7. It’s title is a combination of the two other versions. It was recorded just as Ashley was beginning to perform with his new group (Gordon, van Tieghem, and Kroesen), and allows us to hear another wonderful perspective on this genius work.”

(by Adam P. - ghostcapital)

Enjoy!

Here you can learn all about "An Opera For Television" by Robert Ashley and of course buy the CD (Lovely Music, Ltd. ‎– LCD 4917.3 / 3CD box):

http://www.lovely.com/artists/a-ashley.html

http://www.robertashley.org/productions/1977-83-perfectlives.htm

http://www.lovely.com/titles/cd4917.html

http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Lives-Robert-Ashley/dp/B00000IOA9

If you find it, buy this album!