After Chick Coreas Piano Improvisations, and Keith Jarretts Facing You, Paul Bleys Open, To Love was the third fabulous chapter in ECMs quietly revolutionary solo piano manifesto, whose impact endures and continues to influence improvisers today. In the liner notes to this Luminessence vinyl edition, Bley biographer Greg Buium writes, After more than fifty years, Open, To Love remains an imperishable gem, lodged forever in the present tense, and among the great masterpieces in ECMs vast catalogue. Produced by Manfred Eicher in Oslo in September 1972, the Canadian pianists album brilliantly integrates three strands of material into a sweeping and emotionally powerful narrative arc. Repertoire is comprised of songs by Carla Bley and Annette Peacock (Carlas Closer, Ida Lupino and Seven, and Annettes Open To Love and Nothing Ever Was, Anyway,) plus two pieces by Paul which unspool and reconfigure jazz standards. In Harlem and Started, Bley fragments motivic material from I Remember Harlem and I Cant Get Started, pieces he had played through the bebop years, until the music acquires a surrealistic dreamlike character, meshing perfectly with new visions of free balladry.

Tracklist:
Side A
1. Closer
2. Ida Lupino
3. Started

Side B
1. Open, To Love
2. Harlem
3. Seven
4. Nothing Ever Was, Anyway