{"id":2679,"date":"2011-06-03T00:09:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-03T07:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2011-06-03T00:12:56","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T07:12:56","slug":"recent-listening-konitz-mehldau-haden-motian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2011\/06\/recent-listening-konitz-mehldau-haden-motian\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Konitz, Mehldau, Haden, Motian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian<\/strong>, Live at Birdland<\/em><\/a> (ECM).<\/p>\n

When he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working with people whose knowledge and ears he trusts, Konitz sometimes simply begins. The first track starts with seven seconds of silence. Then, Konitz, accompanied by Motian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brushes, embarks on an alto saxophone abstraction. The listener who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looked at the listing on the CD box has no idea what tune this is going to be—and wonders if the rhythm section knows. After a few seconds, Mehldau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s piano and Haden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bass appear, but it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clear what will emerge from Konitz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pensiveness. Thirty seconds in, vague recognition dawns. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not giving away the melody, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something about those chord changes. At 59 seconds, he plays an approximation of the first phrase of the bridge of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lover Man,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not an outright quote; a hint. Blatancy is not his way. This one-chorus solo is a new melody created by an 81-year-old who has played the song hundreds of times. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a safe bet that none of those solos had the shape of this one. This may even be the first time that he slipped in a bar of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Last Time I Saw Paris.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Not all of the standards by this ad hoc quartet begin as mysteriously as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lover Man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d From the top of his introduction, Mehldau gives away \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lullaby of Birdland.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good enough for Konitz. He builds another tower of dreams, then yields to Mehldau whose stunning solo might be the highlight of the album if his dazzle on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Solar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oleo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t match or surpass it. Haden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deliberative solos are\"\"<\/a> the antithesis of the school of high, fast, acrobatic bass playing. The ones on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lullaby of Birdland\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Fall in Love Too Easily\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are as heartening as country walks with a friendly sheep dog. Haden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Motian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s empathy began building forty years ago when they were together in Keith Jarrett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s group. Their rhythmic extrasensory perception is the foundation of these performances. Motian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Konitz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interaction in the opening duo section of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oleo\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a wonder.<\/p>\n

I was at The Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles in 1997 when Haden, Konitz and Mehldau played a two-night gig. It was Konitz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first encounter with the pianist, and he privately expressed concern about being thrown together with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153another young virtuoso.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the course of the performances, his edginess evaporated. The engagement produced a splendid recording<\/a>, but this new one is in a different dimension. To compare the 1997 and 2009 versions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You Stepped Out of a Dream\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is to hear how the addition of Motian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s drums transforms the music. <\/p>\n

In the happiest circumstances, a jam session can be the essence of the jazz experience. Here, four musicians came together with no plan, no arrangements, no tune list. They depended on their musicianship, taste, mutual knowledge of standard songs and senses of adventure and humor. The music they made has the freshness of spontaneity and the wisdom of experience. The ECM publicity about this album indicates that it was a one-time band. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are no reunion gigs planned,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it says. <\/p>\n

Plans—and non-plans—can change. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Konitz, Brad Mehldau, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Live at Birdland (ECM). When he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working with people whose knowledge and ears he trusts, Konitz sometimes simply begins. The first track starts with seven seconds of silence. Then, Konitz, accompanied by Motian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brushes, embarks on an alto saxophone abstraction. The listener who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t looked at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}