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Carla Bley had moved much closer to the mainstream by the time of this 1981 recording from San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, which catches her 10-piece band of the day putting increasing emphasis on funk and gospel-sourced music. "The Lord Is Listenin'..." is a well-sustained feature for the big sound of trombonist Gary Valente, the band's most frequently featured and most effective soloist, with Bley adding organ that seems to reach to her childhood church performances for its inspiration. Her piano playing is startlingly spare on the otherwise almost anonymous "Time and Us," while electric bassist Steve Swallow and pianist Arturo O'Farrill craft a luminous, intimate intro to the plaintive "Still in the Room." The most convincing band performances come on the spikily convoluted "Real Life Hits" and "Song Sung Long," where the funk takes on a Charles Mingus-like urgency. --Stuart Broomer

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