Paul Motian

Paul Motian recorded the six albums in this box for Soul Note between 1983 and 1992, five of them at Barigozzi Studio in Milan. The first three are by his quintet with the two tenor saxophonists Joe Lovano and Jim Pepper, guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Ed Schuller. One Time Out reduces it to the trio of Motian, Lovano and Frisell he had also recorded for ECM, and the last two are duos with pianists: Paul Bley on Notes and Enrico Pieranunzi on Flux And Change. Each disc reproduces one original album, remastered by CAM Jazz for this 2010 edition.

The Story Of Maryam was taped on July 27 and 28, 1983 and Jack Of Clubs on March 26 to 28, 1984, both produced by Giovanni Bonandrini, with Pepper doubling on soprano saxophone; Giancarlo Barigozzi engineered the Milan sessions from Jack Of Clubs on. Misterioso, from July 14 to 16, 1986, sets two Thelonious Monk tunes, the title piece and Pannonica, beside Folk Song For Rosie and Abacus, both first heard on Motian's 1979 ECM trio album Le Voyage. Notes came out of two days with Bley on July 3 and 4, 1987, thirteen tracks that include Carla Bley's Batterie. Two and a half months later, on September 21 and 22, the trio cut One Time Out, where Tadd Dameron's If You Could See Me Now and Monk's Monk's Mood sit among pieces such as The Storyteller and Circle Dance. Flux And Change is a concert at the Roccella Jonica International Jazz Festival on August 27, 1992, organised in three suites where duets, piano solos and drum solos (Double Act, Pianologue, Drumlogue) alternate with standards: Cole Porter's What Is This Thing Called Love?, Someday My Prince Will Come, Sonny Rollins's St. Thomas, Eddie Harris's Freedom Jazz Dance and Monk's Straight No Chaser. Across the box Motian plays drums and, on the duo with Bley, percussion as well.

The Complete Remastered Recordings On Black Saint & Soul Note, CAM Jazz box BXS 1008 from 2010: six remastered CDs in card sleeves, reissuing Soul Note albums first released between 1984 and 1995. The back of the box wrongly credits the sixth disc to Paul Bley and Motian.