CD Reviews

Paul Motian Band

GARDEN OF EDEN | ECM

By JON GARELICK | January 30, 2006

3.0 Stars

GARDEN OF EDEN No all-over blowing session here

The latest from the septuagenarian drum master closely follows last year’s near-perfect I Have the Room Above Her, with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell. This time out, Motian has a septet of two tenors (Chris Cheek and Tony Malaby), three guitars (Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, Jakob Bro), and bass (Jerome Harris). If that suggests a hellacious all-over blowing session, forget about it. These 14 pieces (only two of them more than five minutes long) swing with sublime quietude, lucid. They’re detail-filled miniatures, always focused on melody and ensemble balance, guitar and sax lines gently overlapping, everyone forceful but no one feeling the need to shout. (Only Motian comes close — in a succinct, ebullient drum solo on Monk’s “Evidence.”). Meanwhile there are the tunes, starting with the opening, mournful, rich horns on Mingus’s “Pithecanthropus Erectus” and then his classic “hit single,” “Goodbye Porkpie Hat.” There’s a handful of gem-like Motian originals, Cheek’s Middle Eastern dirge “Desert Dream,” Jerome Kern’s “Bill,” Charlie Parker’s “Cheryl.” Even when he’s at his airiest, Motian’s meals never leave you hungry.

Related: Listen up, Streaming, Boston music news: April 25, 2008, More

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Jazz and Blues, More

| More

ARTICLES BY JON GARELICK

MARY HALVORSON'S ENCHANTED WOOD; PLUS, BEN POWELL'S NEW CD | May 31, 2012
When guitarist Mary Halvorson began taking lessons with Joe Morris as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University, she was excited about the prospect of playing duos with one of her guitar heroes.

THE FRINGE AT 40 | May 15, 2012
"I'm feeling a little light-headed," George Garzone told the audience last Saturday at the Boston Conservatory Theater, closing his eyes and bringing a hand to his brow.

THE 2012 NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL | May 04, 2012
New Orleans Notes

ESPERANZA SPALDING’S “SOCIETY” | April 18, 2012
The first time I was knocked out by Esperanza Spalding, she wasn't even playing — she was talking.

WALT WHITMAN VIA FRED HERSCH | April 19, 2012
The pianist and composer Fred Hersch first encountered the poetry of Walt Whitman as a student at New England Conservatory in 1976.