A new book retraces the life of Paul Bley, one of the key figures in the free jazz movement of the 1960s.

First written by Arrigo Cappelletti in 2004, Paul Bley: The Logic of Chance is now available in English and examines his career and influence on modern jazz alongside the greats with who he honed his talents, which include Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett and Ornette Coleman.

As a pianist Bley managed to took the techniques of Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans in to another area, establishing himself as someone who could fuse elements of bop with free improvisation.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Bley’s career was the sheer amount of jazz icons he played with. Not only was he prodigious in his output, but career almost reads like an encyclopedia of jazz since the 1950s.

A musical prodigy, he could play the violin at five years old and started the piano at eight, earning a diploma at age eleven.

In his teenage years he was playing with various jazz bands and his own group, landing a regular spot at the Alberta Lounge soon after the legendary Oscar Peterson had left.

By 1950 he had moved to New York to study at the prestigious Juilliard School whilst performing in clubs with the saxophonists Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker.

Amongst others he played with in the Big Apple at this time were trumpeter Donald Byrd, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Art Taylor.

Canadian television was the first place a mass audience saw Bley as performed alongside saxophonist Brew Moore, Charlie Parker and as a guest of the Montreal Jazz Workshop, the organization Bley helped to establish.

By 1953 he was recording in the studio with bassist Charles Mingus, drummer Art Blakey, trumpeter Chet Baker and saxophonist Lester Young. For a young pianist not even at the peak of his career, it was extraordinary company.

Despite the revered company he was keeping, he had also managed to establish himself as a pianist and after moving to California he recorded with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins.

The late 1950s was also the time when he he met his future wife, the musician Karen Borg, who changed her name to Carla Bley, and moved to New York where they both became part on the modern jazz scene.

It was in the early 1960s that he established a reputation as a kay figure in modern jazz working with the likes of Roland Kirk, George Russell, Charles Mingus, Jimmy Giuffre and Sonny Rollins.

Later in that decade Bley divorced Carla and married the vocalist Annette Peacock who was to have a lasting influence on his life, becoming a singer with his groups as he moved to more experimental jazz with Moog synthesizers.

One such album of this period was Paul Bley Synthesizer Show, which highlighted instrument alongside musicians such as drummers Bobby Moses and Han Bennink. However, by 1972 the partnership with Peacock was no more.

Video artist Carol Goss was to be his new companion and together they founded a record label and pioneered what was an early forerunner of music videos. Around this time Bley also gave guitarist Pat Metheny and bassist Jaco Pastorius an early break and by 1980 had moved his operations to Cherry Valley in New York State.

The 1980s were a period when Bley reconnected with Canadian artists, recording with the likes of John Surman, John Abercrombie, Jesper Lundgaard, Bob Cranshaw, George Cross, Keith Copeland and Billy Hart.

By the 1990s he diversified even further, recording in Switzerland with flugelhornist Franz Koglmann and clarinetist and saxophonist Hans Koch; vibraphonist Gary Burton, bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and vocalist Tiziana Ghiglioni.

His hunger for the new saw him record and perform with trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, saxophonists Lee Konitz, Evan Parker and Ralph Simon, guitarist Sonny Greenwich, pianists Satoko Fuji, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, and the poet and vocalist Paul Haines.

Since then he has continued to tour the world and keep up his massive output and in 2008 was made a Member of the Order of Canada.