Paul Bley Mark O'Leary Duo Concert Half Moon Theatre

 Paul Bley and Mark O'Leary Live at the Half Moon Theatre.

This was the last concert of our little tour over here. Paul and I kind of worked well together, musically and personably. The concert at Half Moon was full to maximum capacity, even though EST were playing just across the street, with people travelling from far and wide for us and them. Paul would usually play solo, you would play solo and then for the last fifteen minutes play together, but he liked the idea of us playing together from the beginning. We played all improvised material, Paul working inside the piano ala John Tilbury, I was in ambient guitar mode, we then diverged into more disparate type improvisations, angular, rhythmic, Monkesque and a digression to material that was more second vienesse school, next to the terra firma of ECM genre material, a short solo from Paul, a short solo from me, he stood up and tipped his hat, the audience gave a thunderous applause.... We played blues tinged material and that was it, no encore, thanked the audience, congratulatory, appreciation, gratitude, put my gear away quick and off for dinner, collected him from the hotel next day in an antiquated Mercedes, to the airport and back to the USA, safe and sound to Carol.

Paul was a living legend, for me, the number one pianist, nonpareil. Finding a hotel was impossible, there was a credit union conference in the city and every hotel room was booked, friendship prevailed and a decent hotel room procured. It was a fantastic show, Paul was very happy, we shook hands and bon voyage, I was incredibly busy, so much going on, tours coming up all sorts of stuff and then just over a week later, I got a phone call, as I was teaching this girl a Pearl Jam song... "Mark, Paul Bley, have you got a valid passport?" Yes... "Kid, Your comin' with me, we're gonna tour Europe." Paul made the phone call himself, no agent, no wife, no intermediary, mano to mano. Even though it was last minute stuff, I was on all of the brochures and posters. Paul Bley, Jeff Williams Mark O'Leary were the last Paul Bley trio. Jeff Williams is a legend in his own right and husband of best selling author; Lionel Shriver, also I never mentioned to Paul that I used to teach Cillian Murphy.. Or that I was in the Interference...