Paul Motian Trio 2000 + 1: On Broadway, Vol. 4: Or The Paradox of Continuity

Pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, featured on five tracks, brings vocal "inarticulations (picked up via close mic'ing), unusual chord voicings and accompaniment textures, and a gently cubist approach to deconstructing melodies that's more suggestive than emphatic. The remaining tracks substitute vocalist Rebecca Martin, who—with the exception of "Tea for Two, done as a ballad—offers straightforward interpretations of the songs (faithfully including their lesser-known verses) in a timbre more often associated with alternative rock or twangless country.

The saddle between these divergent aesthetics is provided by Motian, bassist Larry Grenadier and saxophonist Chris Potter. The drummer, as always, is the epitome of simpatico, while Grenadier and Potter ameliorate the anarchy—the bassist through consistent rhythmic pulsing and emphasis of chord tones, the tenor saxophonist through obbligato parts and creatively articulated solos that supply (or strongly imply) the inner voices of the underlying harmonic progression.

The strength of Motian's earlier efforts in this vein lie in the amalgamation of "in" and "out," a delicate balance in which freedom is anchored within a discernible structure; here, two co-dominant interpretative aesthetics alternately emphasize black and white extremes at the expense of those fascinating grays only possible in the middle.

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