Steve Cardenas figures again in these pages – see a post from just the other day referring to Every Other Now. And a Cardenas thread doesn’t stop there because I stopped off to listen to versions of two of the tracks here on the guitarist’s own album Charlie and Paul (2017, Newvelle) – ‘Riff Raff’ and ‘Prairie Avenue Cowboy’. It’s a diversion worth making.
Trust me you will be making lots of diversions inspired by such an appealingly understated album especially turning to 1980s Motian classic ‘It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago’ which powers the beating heart of the aestheticism at work.
Pianist Anat Fort knows Motian’s music better than most and like Cardenas having played with the drummer who made history with the Bill Evans Trio and later went on to if anything an even greater artistic phase in his life as a composer of unique material and bandleader of distinction.
Motian’s influence still inspires a host of musicians. Take the remarkable Dane Jakob Bro’s knowing Lo down.
Fort was in on Motian’s last performance before he died in a group that she led at Cornelia St. Café in New York. You hear her speaking voice here too on the spoken word version of ‘Tacho,’ one of two treatments. It tells a remarkable story all of its own that’s like a behind the scenes very unglamorous but nevertheless highly bohemian in its own way glimpse into what Motian’s often eccentric life could be. Bassist Gary Wang performs a Steve Swallow like role that is very sympathetic and appropriate. He’s like a butler to the beat.
It’s quite an unnerving experience listening to this record given how evanescent the lightness of touch becomes.
An odd thing is that the role of drums here isn’t that significant. Odd because Motian was a drummer and doubly odd given that Matt Wilson here is an excellent player. But his hidden in plain sight role is true to Motian’s style.
There are light moments too amongst the seriousness. And on a quirky number like ‘Umh Hum’ you get a vaudevillian slapstick quality – a bit like when the clowns come out in a Shakespeare play. It’s a previously unrecorded piece by Motian and one of the main draws.
Other bits that caught my fancy? The raucous anarchy of ‘Byablue’ is one where Fort is a little Ethan Iverson-like and comes out of her shell more.
In fact Iverson in The Bad Plus with BIll Frisell covered another of the tunes here ‘Mumbo Jumbo’ to effect begun by a very rousing Dave King drum solo. Big noisy statements however enjoyable are not what The Dreamworld of Paul Motian is about. It’s more for Introverts and a teasing out of subtlety and grace in there all along and sometimes lost in the noise elsewhere.
Maybe you will crave grittier treatments of a piece like ‘Arabesque’ as in the version by Motian and his Electric Bebop Band above however. Personally I didn’t, much as that extra energy has its place. Because listening to other versions of the material makes you admire the sharp focus and soft pastoralism of Fort’s approach even more and how intact everything here remains even after several listens.
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