Carla Bley

Carla Bley is a musician I have loved and listened to for years, an inspired and unique composer, and a pianist full of surprises. Of course, you can hear some Monk in her love of dissonance and her clumsy playing (on purpose!). But to me there's more: like John Lewis, she seems to try to produce the most effect with the fewest notes possible. She keeps things simple – and always groovy: her rhythmic language is very strong.
I really like her duo albums with Steve Swallow, and her trio albums with Andy Sheppard. Her big band albums are obviously great, but I don't feel like embarking on this kind of transcription…

From Duets, with Steve Swallow (1988):
Romantic Notions #3 (Video)
This is a weird tune. It starts with dissonant, awkward chords, followed by some solos over those chords (AABB). It's a bit hard to recognize a real theme, there are bits of melody that you hear several times, but I couldn't figure out much more. But anyway, it's a great fun to play!
Edit: I just bought Carla's score for her Romantic Notions, and without surprise I got most of her rhythms wrong… I'll let it this way, because I believe that my version is very readable (if not accurate). If you want to dig in, buy her score on her website!
Útviklingssang (Video)
I suppose this is one of Carla Bley's most famous compositions, and rightly so: the melody is very beautiful and the harmony is both simple and full of subtlety. She plays this piece with great simplicity, like a song, which gives even more emotional weight to the moments of tension.
I use the chord names and structure that I found on Carla Bley's leadsheet, but if you ask me, I would rather notate G/A than Am11 ; and D/E than Em11.

From Trios, with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow (2013):
Vashkar (Video)
This is a catchy piece composed in 6/4, an unusual meter carried by Steve Swallow's groovy bass lines. Dissonances, strange and exotic scales, rhythmic richness: everything we like!