Carla Bley
Bley began by writing tunes for small jazz groups but gradually moved into writing for larger ensembles. She started writing specifically for particular players and that had become a strength of her work by the mid-60s.
After her experimental opera Escalator over the Hill, Bley turned to rock/ jazz fusion in the late 70s, but had returned primarily to jazz ten years later and she has continued in that fashion ever since.