Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American
jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer of Armenian descent. He played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties.
Motian first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of
Bill Evans and later was a regular in pianist
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...
's band for about a decade (c. 1967–1976). The drummer began his career as a bandleader in the early 1970s. Perhaps his two most notable groups were a longstanding trio with guitarist
Bill Frisell and saxophonist
Joe Lovano as well as the Electric Bebop Band, in which he worked mostly with younger musicians on interpretations of
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...
standards.
Biography
Motian was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and raised in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
. He was of
Armenian descent. After playing guitar in his childhood, Motian began playing the drums at age 12, eventually touring
New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
in a
swing band. During the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
he joined the Navy and attended the
United States Naval School of Music in
Washington, D.C. until 1954. He also attended the
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...
.
Motian became a professional musician in 1954, and briefly played with pianist
Thelonious Monk. He became well known as the drummer in pianist
Bill Evans's trio (1959–64), initially alongside bassist
Scott LaFaro and later with
Chuck Israels.
Subsequently, he played with pianists
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...
(1963–64) and
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...
(1967–76). Other musicians with whom Motian performed and/or recorded in the early period of his career included
Lennie Tristano,
Warne Marsh
Warne Marion Marsh (October 26, 1927 – December 18, 1987) was an American tenor saxophonist. Born in Los Angeles, his playing first came to prominence in the 1950s as a protégé of pianist Lennie Tristano and earned attention in the 1970s as ...
,
Lee Konitz,
Joe Castro,
Arlo Guthrie (Motian performed briefly with Guthrie in 1968–69, including at
Woodstock),
Carla Bley,
Charlie Haden, and
Don Cherry. Motian subsequently worked with musicians such as
Marilyn Crispell,
Bill Frisell,
Leni Stern,
Joe Lovano,
Gonzalo Rubalcaba,
Alan Pasqua,
Bill McHenry, Stéphan Oliva,
Frank Kimbrough,
Eric Watson and many more.
Later in his career, Motian became an important composer and group leader, recording initially for
ECM Records in the 1970s and early 1980s and then for
Soul Note,
JMT, and
Winter & Winter before returning to ECM in 2005.
From the early 1980s he led a trio featuring guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, occasionally joined by bassists
Ed Schuller, Charlie Haden, or
Marc Johnson, and other musicians, including
Jim Pepper, Lee Konitz,
Dewey Redman
Walter Dewey Redman (May 17, 1931 – September 2, 2006) was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.
Redman mainly played tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also played alto s ...
and
Geri Allen. In addition to playing Motian's compositions, the group recorded tributes to Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans, and a series of ''Paul Motian on Broadway'' albums, featuring original interpretations of
jazz standards.
Despite his important associations with pianists, Motian's work as a leader since the 1970s rarely included a pianist in his ensembles and relied heavily on guitarists. Motian's first instrument was the guitar, and he apparently retained an affinity for the instrument: in addition to his groups with Frisell, his first two solo albums on ECM featured
Sam Brown, and his Electric Bebop Band featured two and occasionally three electric guitars. The group was founded in the early 1990s, and featured a variety of young guitar and saxophone players.
In 2011 Motian featured on a number of new recordings, including ''
Live at Birdland'' (with Lee Konitz,
Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden),
Samuel Blaser's ''Consort in Motion'', ''No Comment'' by Augusto Pirodda, and ''Further Explorations'' with
Chick Corea and
Eddie Gómez.
Bill McHenry's ''Ghosts of the Sun'' was released - by coincidence - on the day of Motian's death. Motian's final album as bandleader was ''The Windmills of Your Mind'', featuring Bill Frisell,
Thomas Morgan and
Petra Haden.
Death
Motian died on November 22, 2011 at the age of 80 at New York's
Mount Sinai Hospital of complications from
myelodysplastic syndrome.
Box set releases
CAM Jazz released a box set titled ''Paul Motian'' in September 2010. This release compiles a number of albums which were originally issued by the Soul Note label: ''
The Story of Maryam'', ''
Jack of Clubs'', ''
Misterioso'', ''
Notes'' (with
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...
), ''
One Time Out'' (with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano) and ''Flux and Change'' (duet with Enrico Pieranunzi).
In November 2012, Winter & Winter released ''Paul Motian on Broadway Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5'' which collects the five volumes of ''On Broadway'' into a single set.
ECM Records released a box set titled ''Paul Motian'' in April 2013, as part of the label's continuing ''Old & New Masters Edition'' series. This set compiles the six albums that Motian recorded for ECM between 1972 and 1984; ''
Conception Vessel'', ''
Tribute'', ''
Dance
Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
'', ''
Le Voyage'', ''
Psalm'' and ''
It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago''.
Posthumous releases
The first posthumous release to feature Motian was ''Sunrise'' by the
Masabumi Kikuchi Trio (with Thomas Morgan), released in March 2012 by ECM. This was followed in July 2012 by ''Owls Talk'' by Alexandra Grimal (also featuring
Lee Konitz and
Gary Peacock), released by
Harmonia Mundi.
Two live recordings, led by pianist
Enrico Pieranunzi, have been released by CAM Jazz; ''New York Reflections: Live at Birdland'' (with Steve Swallow) was released in October 2012 (exclusively in vinyl format), while ''Live at the Village Vanguard'' (with Marc Johnson) was issued in March 2013.
CAM Jazz reissued ''
One Time Out'' in March 2013, in 180g vinyl format. A compact disc edition is supplied with it. ''One Time Out'' was also issued on CD as part of the CAM Jazz ''Paul Motian'' boxset.
In 2023, Frozen Reeds released "Duo in Concert," recordings of Motian freely improvising with
Derek Bailey, from their two known live performances.
Motian compositions recorded by others and tributes
''Motian Sickness – The Music of Paul Motian (for the Love of Sarah)'' was released in September 2011, featuring Jeff Cosgrove, John Hebert,
Mat Maneri and Jamie Masefield.
November 2011 saw the release of
Joel Harrison's ''String Choir: The Music of Paul Motian''. Harrison arranged Motian's music for a string quartet (featuring
Christian Howes, Sam Bardfeld, Mat Maneri, and
Dana Leong), plus two guitars (
Liberty Ellman and Harrison).
Russ Lossing's ''Drum Music: Music of Paul Motian (Solo Piano)'' was released in July 2012 by
Sunnyside Records. Lossing originally recorded the album to celebrate Motian's 80th birthday; he published a video on YouTube about the recording.
Ravi Coltrane included the Motian composition ''Fantasm'' on his 2012 album ''
Spirit Fiction''. The performance features Joe Lovano.
Noël Akchoté independently released ''Fiasco (Plays the Music of Paul Motian)'' in July 2015, exclusively in digital format. It features solo acoustic guitar arrangements of twenty Motian compositions.
In 2016, Jean-Marc Padovani released ''Motian in Motion'' via Naïve Jazz.
In 2018, the Carl Michel Group released ''Music in Motian'' via Play On Records.
In 2020, Haşmet Asilkan arranged the songs of Motian for solo guitar and released them under the title ''Paul Motian Songbook''
Discography
References
External links
Paul Motian on ECM Records"The Paradox of Continuity"by Ethan Iverson
"Paul Motian Archive""Paul Motian interview & discography"by Chuck Braman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Motian, Paul
1931 births
2011 deaths
American jazz drummers
American people of Armenian descent
Avant-garde jazz musicians
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from myelodysplastic syndrome
ECM Records artists
Jazz musicians from Philadelphia
Improvising Artists Records artists
JMT Records artists
Black Saint/Soul Note artists
Winter & Winter Records artists
Pirouet Records artists
Bill Evans Trio members
DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members
American male drummers
Drummers from Philadelphia