Series containing records predominantly concerning business aspects of Bley's career as a professional jazz musician, including the operations of Improvising Artists Inc. (IAI). The series documents Bley's activities as a performing and recording artist in Canada, the USA, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere, including: discussions and negotiations with concert presenters, tour organizers, recording companies, broadcasters (including the CBC), and other musicians for Bley concerts and tours, recording sessions, and broadcast performances; arrangements for concerts and tours for other artists on the IAI roster; the promotion and distribution of sound and video recordings, particularly those in the IAI catalogue by Bley himself and by other IAI artists; the licensing of recordings; the publishing of compositions; royalties for the sale of Bley recordings; publishing royalties for compositions owned by Bley's publishing company, Pablo Music; contacts with other musicians and with other individuals and organizations in the jazz community; Bley's membership in the Europe Jazz Network; and administrative and financial aspects of Bley's teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music. The types of records include: correspondence; recording and performance contracts; licensing agreements; sales and royalty statements; clearance, registration, and other forms concerning compositions; financial and legal records; photographs; itineraries; programmes; press releases, discographies, reprints of articles and reviews, and other promotional material for Bley and IAI; Rolodex card files and other contact information records; database print outs; notes; record catalogues and other print matter; student rosters and evaluations; and minutes. While the files pertain predominantly to business matters, a few also contain personal correspondence.
The series contains the following sub-series: MUS 297/C1 Geographical Files; MUS 297/C2 Record Label Files; MUS 297/C3 Publishing Files; MUS 297/C4 General Files; MUS 297/C5 Contact Information Files.
