Favorite albums: Dance by Paul Motian

New feature: I'll mention records that have meant a lot to me and write a little bit about them. Writing about musical experiences is not my thing, and I am not a jazz critic, so I'll keep my commentaries concise and idiosyncratic. Terse even.

Our first entry:

Dance by Paul Motian
1977 - ECM 144384



Charles Brackeen - tenor and soprano sax
David Izenson - bass
 Paul Motian - drums

This has been one of my all-time favorite records since I found the LP used (probably a promo) for two bucks at Portland's Crossroads Music in the late 90's. Features one of my favorite drum solos (on Dance), some of the friendliest Motian compositions recorded, the great David Izenson doing a lot of beautiful arco playing, and the interesting, elusive saxophonist Charles Brackeen. The blowing is raucous but also spacious. Rare overdubs nicely handled on Kalypso and Lullaby. Lush-sounding. Each piece and the entire album are beautifully balanced.

Purchase on Amazon.com.



NOTE:
For anyone interested in this group, I did stumble across mention of a live recording of a Bremen performance, probably in advance of the Dance sessions. It does not seem to have ever been made available commercially. There are download links in the comments to that post. I don't know what the ethics of downloading are in this case. The site says: "We focus on posting out of print material with the objective of drawing attention to music which otherwise might have remained out of mind and out of sight."