Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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MOTIAN, Paul

(b Stephen Paul Motian, 25 March 1931, Philadelphia PA, of Armenian descent; d 22 November 2011, Manhattan) Drummer, composer; also pianist. An exceptionally talented and tasteful contemporary musician whose name ought to be a household word. He listened to Turkish music as a child; tried guitar under the influence of cowboy movies but switched to drums at age twelve; served in US Navy; first recorded mid-'55 on the Progressive label with pianist/singer Bob Dorough (b 12 December 1923, Cherry Hill AR; recorded with Miles Davis on Sorcerer). Played and recorded with Bill Evans trio '59-63 including with Scott La Faro; Evans was so angry because he left that they did not speak for 15 years, but were reconciled and would have played together again but for Evans's death.

Motian was always curious, could play anything and had to investigate everything. He first played with Paul Bley '64 (LP Turning Point), then with Mose Allison, Arlo Guthrie (including the Woodstock Festival), Charles Lloyd (including a tour of Asia); he also played/recorded with Lennie Tristano; with Keith Jarrett '66-9, again '71-5 during one of Jarrett's most creative periods: the quartet with Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman was not well documented on records; Eyes Of The Heart on ECM, meant to be a live concert recording, was heavily edited. Motian was active in the JCOA group, including the Carla Bley albums Escalator Over The Hill and Tropic Appetites, and in Haden's Liberation Orchestra on Impulse, A&M and ECM.

Motian's first LP as a leader was Conception Vessel '72 with Haden, Sam Brown on guitar, duets with Jarrett; then quintet Tribute '74, trio Dance '76 with Charles Brackeen on reeds, bassist David Izenson; Le Voyage '79 with Jean-François Jenny-Clark instead of Izenson; quintet on Psalm '81 included guitarist Bill Frisell. Motian switched to Soul Note for quintet albums The Story Of Maryam '83 and Jack Of Clubs '84, both made in Milan with Frisell, bassist Ed Schuller (son of musicologist Gunther), Jim Pepper and Joe Lovano on reeds. Trio It Should've Happened A Long Time Ago '84 with Lovano and Frisell was back on ECM. He was reunited with Bley on the lovely Bley album Fragments '86 on ECM with Frisell and John Surman, the poetry in Motian making an equal part in thoughtful, evocative tone poems. Trio Monk In Motian '88 with Frisell and Lovano, Dewey Redman and Geri Allen guesting on two tracks each, is astonishingly evocative, like looking back at Monk's music through a prism, and very beautiful. Flux And Change '92 on Soul Note is a duo with pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, free territory with lyricism; Pieranunzi's The Untold Story '93 on Ida adds Marc Johnson on bass. The trio with Frisell and Lovano continued to provide some of the most challenging and intelligent jazz to be heard anywhere.

In later years Motian stopped touring and was often seen at the Village Vanguard, his combination of skill and good taste utterly unique, almost mysterious. Someone wrote on the day he died that the world seems different without Motian in it.