Paul Motian: Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1

Paul Motian, born in 1931, has been a professional jazz drummer for over fifty years. Beginning his career with a stint in the Bill Evans Trio from ‘59-’64, Motian has played with a veritable who’s who of jazz, including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Paul Bley, and Keith Jarrett.

He gave birth to the careers of guitarists Bill Frisell, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Brad Shepik as well as saxophonist Joe Lavano — and turned down the opportunity to replace Elvin Jones in John Coltrane’s band. Though his initial success was born out of straight standards, Motian has spent the majority of his career defining the “free drummer.”

Leading the movement of drummer/band leaders from traditional time-keeping duties, Motian’s current group has followed this method of jazz improvisation for the better part of ten years. Live At The Village Vanguard is his Trio 2000 group of tenor Chris Potter and bassist Larry Grenadier, “plus two” — alto Greg Osby and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi. Though Motian has been known to choose the polyphonic guitar in place of piano, this group remains committed to keeping compositional melody away from the only chordal instrument.

Loosely tied melodies are introduced by the sax players while Motian spends his time practically avoiding everyone. Unlike guitar players Frisell and Rosenwinkel, who are known for their complex chordal improvisations, Kikuchi spends his time in sparse attacks, rarely layering the overall mood.

Potter and Osby trade solo expositions when they aren’t plowing through rough melodies or playing over each other. And other than the only standard on the record — “If You Could See Me Now,” a beautiful tonal ballad — the other four tunes, all devised by Motian, are barely discernible from each other.

Though the individual playing is technically superior, the album really does not have any cohesive band moments that are memorable or interesting.

-Ryan McCarthy

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