My return to Oberlin has found me to busy to do any writing. I am therefore currently using my recuperation time from this unpleasant cold as a chance to catch up.
Paul Motian at the Village Vanguard 8/31/10
Okay so maybe this was the best show of the summer. Tough call. I have heard Motian's trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano live before, and it was quite a show. This show blew that one away.
While Motian's recordings for ECM in the past decade have generally been about restraint and gentle subtlety, they were out for blood this night; it was the most aggressive I have ever heard Paul Motian play. Bill Frisell was the shy guy that night, in the shadows towards the side of the stage, hunching over his guitar. His solos were brooding and introverted but full of dark energy. He mixed jarring dissonance and rhythmic akwardness with twangy folk-like passages. Lovano was the extrovert, gushing tremendous post-Coltrane lines at high speeds, sometimes breaking into his melodic altissimo, one moment holding his saxophone off to the side like Lester Young, the next moment lifting it above his head like Albert Ayler and all of that history there in the music. Motian's playing was typically cryptic and fragmented, giving only the loosest and most round-about references to time. As always, it somehow managed to swing like mad. The trio played through three of Motian's pieces and three by Thelonious Monk. It is my belief that they are one of the very few contemporary groups who bring anything original to Monk's music. The set highlight was was Misterioso. After a very loose and collective take on the theme, Lovano took the first solo- mostly post-Coltrane knotty and sophisticated lines. Frisell followed, still introspective, but bringing in a lot of bluesy grit. Lovano then returned to take a second and longer solo. Halfway in he began referencing the blues heavily too, stomping it out like Illinois Jacquet. Motian's playing became uncharacteristically funky in response. While never playing any really obvious backbeat feel, he communicated his own unique sense of funk. This was a very rare moment for this group, I think.
The Paul Motian Trio is still one of the most innovative groups in contemporary jazz. Motian has nothing left to prove, he's just doing his thing.
