Jazz Articles about Motian Sickness

About Motian Sickness

Album Review

Motian Sickness: The Music of Paul Motian: For the Love of Sarah

Read "The Music of Paul Motian: For the Love of Sarah" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
September 17, 2012

Washington, DC drummer Jeff Cosgrove's exploration of jazz drumming legend Paul Motian's music has been a labor of love. Motian, who passed away in November 2011, sent Cosgrove 29 tunes over the three years this project took to realize. Using traditional bluegrass musicians as a kind of laboratory, Cosgrove chose compositions that best fit the uncommon instrumentation, though there's nothing in the way of Appalachian folksiness about the music. Instead, these avant-jazz/modern classical interpretations lay bare the originality and stark ...

Album Review

Motian Sickness: The Music of Paul Motian: For the Love of Sarah

Read "For the Love of Sarah" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 6, 2012

The parts of the drum set, viewed individually or as a collective whole, fit neatly under the “percussion" heading in the musical instrument world, yet Paul Motian rarely seemed to view them as objects to be struck. Motian found a way to finesse the cymbals, flirt with the drums and free the drum set from the shackles of firm placement and strict time. His painterly approach to playing, which helped to give the Bill Evans Trio its organic identity, set ...

The Moment's Energy

The Veiled Meanings of Paul Motian

by Nic Jones
June 30, 2012

While Paul Motian's music could be regarded as amalgam of the predetermined and the free, that tells only a small part of the story. Similarly, arguing that his drumming was a merging of Kenny Clarke and Sunny Murray is no more helpful, even as it hints at the freedom in his work. But at this moment in time, and of course in light of his recent death in November, 2011, it feels too soon to determine whether or not he ...

Album Review

Motian Sickness: The Music of Paul Motian: For the Love of Sarah

Read "For the Love of Sarah" reviewed by Dave Sumner

by Dave Sumner
March 26, 2012

There is an edge-of-sleep quality to the recently departed Paul Motian's drumming, and to much of the music he recorded. It's a dreaminess that reflects the spark of subconscious creativity even as the body sits at rest. For the Love of Sarah is a tribute to Motian's music, and from the opening moments it's like stepping into the middle of a story about a dream.It would be difficult not to draw comparisons with another recent Motian tribute album ...