Essential jazz drummer Paul Motian was a big reason I found my way back to rock music with a sense of purpose, all via the beautiful and driving music of the Keith Jarrett Trio, and then in free fall to the earlier even more seminal work of the Bill Evan Trio.
Tired of rock by the mid-70’s and just beginning to explore jazz, I bought Jarrett’s El Juicio and marveled at how a music could ride its own wave. That was Motian moving the leviathan. He continued to provide that motion up to his death a couple days ago. Right now I am listening to his I Have The Room Above Her featuring his moody parse compositions with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. I am celebrating to his rhythmic gift, his real voice, the one that told me long ago ‘Listen to your heart, forget categories, find your own music.’
-CL
