Paul Bley urged her to write, and his groups became an early venue for her work.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

This rendition of "Ida Lupino, " recorded in 1965 and included on the Paul Bley Trio's newly reissued Closer, is darkly winsome.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

Another jazz lady famous for going her own way is Carla Bley, a composer-bandleader who combines a taste for rich sonorities with post-modern whimsy.

ECONOMIST: Old friends are the best friends

Recalling such maverick Yankee musicians as Charles Ives, it is written with Ms Bley's trademark flair and played with robust authority by her band.

ECONOMIST: Old friends are the best friends

Two particular examples, Keith Jarrett and The Bad Plus' Ethan Iverson (both Bley disciples), have written music in its image serene, unsettling, and gorgeously melancholy.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

Bringing to mind Bley's softly exhilarating solo recitals, the theme segues in and out of a minor-key improvisation that meanders like pockets of storm clouds on an otherwise pleasant day.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

Named for the iconic British actress and credited here to Carla Bley and Terry Adams (of NRBQ), it succeeds with an elegiac recurring motif, overtones of folk and the blues, rapturous glissandos, and an expert grasp of volume dynamics.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

Bassist Steve Swallow appears along with the famously dynamic drummer Barry Altschul, whose metric looseness shadows of rhythm that land on and around the pulse draws comparison to the Bley drummer who recorded the tune first, Paul Motian.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz

Beginning in the late '50s, a good deal of that allure came from the compositions of Bley's then-wife, a composer and pianist born Carla Borg who, using the Bley surname, would become an enduring jazz progressive in her own right.

NPR: Paul Bley Trio: Darkly Winsome Jazz