Paul Motian's Monk In Motian

On Monk in Motian, the late drummer Paul Motian is heard leading a combo with guitarist Bill Frissell and saxophonist Joe Lovano with guest appearances by Dewey Redman and pianist Geri Allen. There is no bass on this, and with the exception of the tracks with Allen are piano-less as well. The CD was originally issued on the German JMT label in 1988 and reissued in 2002 on the Winter and Winter imprint, which I recently purchased from JazzLoft.com.

I really like the open feeling of the performance which the lack of piano contributes to as does Frissell’s really nice guitar. Frissell’s chords and riffs form the anchor of these performances which Motian and Lovano playing off of. There are a number of familiar Monk classics including Evidence, Bye-Ya, and Epistrophy. The ambience is somewhat similar to School Days, the wonderful Steve Lacy-Roswell Rudd group devoted to Monk’s music.

This is packed in a hardback styled cover. It is, as indicated above, not a new release which I purchased it from jazzloft.com.