Carla Bley daughter: Meet Karen Mantler

Jazz composer and pianist Carla Bley, who was well-known, passed away at her Willow, New York, home from complications related to brain cancer. She clocked in at 87. The New York Times was informed of the news by Bley’s longtime companion and bassist Steve Swallow.

A leader in the free jazz movement, Bley also led a sextet that included Larry Willis and Hiram Bullock, an acoustic trio that included Swallow and Andy Sheppard, and a large band featuring some of New York’s top performers.

Charlie Haden founded the Liberation Music Orchestra in 1969, and Bley served as both its initial conductor and arranger. After Haden passed away in 2014, Bley led the group in remembrance of him. Swallow and Karen Mantler, a musician, are Bley’s only surviving children from that union.

Carla Bley daughter: Meet Karen Mantler

In the United States, Karen Mantler was born and raised in New York City in 1966. Her parents are jazz eccentrics Michael Mantler and Carla Bley. At the age of four, she made her musical debut by lending her voice to Carla Bley’s 1971 album Escalator Over the Hill, which was followed by 1974’s Tropic Appetites.