The Windmills of Your Mind Paul Motian

• 1Introduction (1)02:27
• 2Tennessee Waltz03:50
• 3The Windmills of Your Mind06:45
• 4Let’s Face The Music And Dance01:56
• 5Lover Man03:28
• 6It’s Been a Long, Long Time02:38
• 7Little Foot02:21
• 8Easy Living03:15
• 9I’Ve Got a Crush On You02:42
• 10Backup02:30
• 1111. I Loves You Porgy04:00
• 12Trieste02:08
• 13If I Could Be With You03:17
• 14Wednesday’s Gone02:08
• 15I Remember You05:43
• 16Introduction (2)03:05
• Total Runtime52:13

Info for The Windmills of Your Mind

This is drums giant Paul Motian's 80th birthday album – though for a legend who helped reinvent ensemble improve with visionaries such as Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, it might sound like a pipe-and-slippers decision to hook it on such over-exercised tunes as the title, Tennessee Waltz and Let's Face the Music and Dance. But Motian enlists Bill Frisell on guitar and Thomas Morgan on bass to turn the usual glides and smooches of these songs into a lurching, spontaneously contrapuntal undertow, in which the rhythm lies as much in what's not being played as what is. But over that, Motian has cannily placed the limpid, quietly evocative voice of Charlie Haden's vocalist daughter Petra – an artist more usually associated with alt-rock and a capella work. Haden imaginatively inhabits these songs, delivering a definitively unvarnished version of the title track over Motian's snuffling brushwork and Morgan's huge bass sound, and unfolding tenderly revealing accounts of Easy Living and I Loves You Porgy. But hearing this inimitably eccentric instrumental trio chime, boom and lurch through Let's Face the Music and Dance is perhaps the real piece de resistance. (John Fordham, The Guardian)

'This album is further proof of the heights that music can reach when all concerns of style and prowess are discarded. Motian is brave and instinctive enough to dispense with technical peripheries and just play what the music demands, moment by moment.' (THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD)

Paul Motian, Drums
Bill Frisell, Electric Guitar
Thomas Morgan, Bass
Petra Haden, Vocals

Executive Producer: Mariko Takahashi
Mastered By: Adrian Von Ripka
Producer, Executive Producer: Stefan Winter

Paul Motian - The Drummer
A masterfully subtle drummer and a superb colorist, Paul Motian is also an advanced improviser and a bandleader with a taste for challenging post-bop. Born Stephen Paul Motian in Philadelphia in 1931, he grew up in Providence and began playing the drums at age 12, eventually touring New England in a swing band. He moved to New York in 1955 and played with numerous musicians — including Thelonious Monk, Lennie Tristano, Coleman Hawkins, Tony Scott, and George Russell — before settling into a regular role as part of Bill Evans' most famous trio (with bassist Scott LaFaro), appearing on his classics Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. In 1963, Motian left Evans' group to join up with Paul Bley for a year or so, and began a long association with Keith Jarrett in 1966, appearing with the pianist's American-based quartet through 1977. In addition, Motian freelanced for artists like Mose Allison, Charles Lloyd, Carla Bley, and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Ensemble, and turned down the chance to be John Coltrane's second drummer. In 1988 Motian moved to JMT, where he recorded a long string of fine albums beginning with Monk in Motian. During the 90s, he also led an ensemble called the Electric Bebop Band, which featured Joshua Redman. In 1998, Motian signed on with the Winter & Winter label, where he began recording another steady stream of albums.

Bill Frisell- Guitar
Born in Baltimore, Bill Frisell played clarinet throughout his childhood in Denver, Colorado. His interest in guitar began with his exposure to pop music on the radio. Soon, the Chicago Blues became a passion through the work of Otis Rush, B.B. King, Paul Butterfield and Buddy Guy. In high school, he played in bands covering pop and soul classics, James Brown and other dance material. Later, Bill studied music at the University of Northern Colorado before attending Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied with John Damian, Herb Pomeroy and Michael Gibbs. In 1978, Frisell moved for a year to Belgium where he concentrated on writing music. In this period, he toured with Michael Gibbs and first recorded with German bassist Eberhard Weber. Bill moved to the New York City area in 1979 and stayed until 1989. He now lives in Seattle.

"When I was 16, I was listening to a lot of surfing music, a lot of English rock. Then I saw Wes Montgomery and somehow that kind of turned me around. Later, Jim Hall made a big impression on me and I took some lessons with him. I suppose I play the kind of harmonic things Jim would play but with a sound that comes from Jimi Hendrix", Frisell told Wire. Bill also lists Paul Motian, Thelonious Monk, Aaron Copland, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and his teacher, Dale Bruning, as musical influences.

This album contains no booklet.