Open, to Love

{{Infobox album

| name = Open, to Love

| type = studio

| artist = Paul Bley

| cover = Open to Love.jpg

| alt =

| released = 1972

| recorded = {{Start date|1972|09|11}}

| studio = Arne Bendiksen Studio
Oslo, Norway

| genre = Jazz

| length = {{Duration|m=42|s=32}}

| label = ECM 1023 ST

| producer = Manfred Eicher

| prev_title = Dual Unity

| prev_year = 1972

| next_title = Paul Bley & Scorpio

| next_year = 1973

}}

Open, to Love is a solo album by Canadian jazz pianist and composer Paul Bley recorded on September 11, 1972 and released on ECM later that year.

Background

The album is one of the first showcases of the pointillism and silence that would inform much of his later work.

Open, to Love was selected as part of the ECM Touchstones series, as one of the most influential recordings on the label.[https://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/143038752079/open-to-love-paul-bley Open To Love at ECM Records]

Reception

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{rating|5|5}}

| rev2 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz

| rev2Score = {{rating|4|4}}

| rev3 = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

| rev3Score = {{rating|5|5}}{{Cite book

|editor-last=Swenson

|editor-first=J.

| year = 1985

| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

|url=https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen

|url-access=registration

| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone

| location = USA

| isbn = 0-394-72643-X

| pages = [https://archive.org/details/rollingstonejazz00swen/page/26 26]

}}

}}The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 5 stars stating "Despite the fact that pianist and composer Paul Bley had been a renowned and innovative jazzman for nearly 20 years, 1973 saw the release of his most mature and visionary work, and one that to this day remains his opus. This is one of the most influential solo piano recordings in jazz history, and certainly one that defined the sound of the German label ECM... Ultimately, what Bley offers is jazz pianism as a new kind of aural poetics, one that treats the extension of the composer's line much as the poet treats the line as the extension of breath. Sheer brilliance."Jurek, T. [http://www.allmusic.com/album/open-to-love-r135575/review Allmusic Review] accessed August 29, 2011

The Penguin Guide to Jazz said "There is, perhaps, inevitably a hint of deja-vu here and there, but the territory is always much too interesting for that to become a problem."{{cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Cook (journalist)|author2 = Brian Morton|author-link2 = Brian Morton (Scottish writer)|title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD|edition = 8th|series = The Penguin Guide to Jazz|year = 2008|publisher = Penguin|location = London|isbn = 978-0141023274|pages = [https://archive.org/details/penguinguidetoja00cook_1/page/132 132]|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/penguinguidetoja00cook_1/page/132}}