Lovella May Borg

Lovella May Borg was born in Oakland, California, to a church choir director and piano teacher father. Moving to New York at seventeen, she worked as a cigarette girl at the legendary jazz club Birdland, immersing herself in bebop and marrying pianist Paul Bley, who began performing her innovative compositions.

Bley emerged as one of the most original and witty composers in jazz history. In 1965, she co-founded the Jazz Composer's Orchestra with Michael Mantler, commissioning radical large-ensemble avant-garde music. Between 1968 and 1971, she composed her monumental three-LP "chronotransduction" jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, blending free jazz, rock, and Indian music with an eclectic cast including Jack Bruce, Don Cherry, and Linda Ronstadt. Bley also arranged Charlie Haden's iconic anti-fascist Liberation Music Orchestra and co-founded New Music Distribution Service and WATT Records to ensure artist autonomy. She was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2015.