I got started when I was 3 years old because my father was a music teacher and my lessons were free. Instead of learning to walk, you learn to play the piano.

Carla Bley has continued to record frequently with her own big band which has included Blood Sweat and Tears notable Lew Soloff and a number of smaller ensembles notably The Lost Chords. After giving up the church to immerse herself in roller skating at the age of fourteen Carla Bley moved to New York at seventeen and became a cigarette girl at Birdland where Carla Bley met jazz pianist Paul Bley whom Carla Bley married in 1957. Rhone.

An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s Carla Bley is perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator Over The Hill (released as a triple LP set) as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists including Gary Burton Jimmy Giuffre George Russell Art Farmer and her ex-husband Paul Bley.