Ecm Records
2005
I Have The Room Above Her
About This Album
The sum total of the nuanced, elliptical lyricism at the heart of Paul Motian's compositional method can be heard in the opening seconds of "Osmosis Part III," the first track from I Have the Room Above Her. Recorded for ECM -- with producer Manfred Eicher, guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano -- this date is Motian's first as a leader for the label in more than 20 years. This is the same team that recorded the seminal album It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago in 1984. At that time, Lovano and Frisell were just beginning to establish themselves as bandleaders though they had each recorded under their own names. The weight placed on each member of this band is tremendous since standard rhythmic and harmonic anchors such as bass and piano are absent. Instead, melody, spatial dynamics and a sense of expressionistic harmony become the triad on which these group interactions are built. Motian's tunes dominate the set and rightfully so, they bear the mantle of improvisational adventure -- particularly in the aforementioned "Ocmosis III" a fine revisitation of "Dance" from his 1977 album of the same name, the utterly beguiling contrapuntal swing in "The Riot Act," and an outside yet texturally lyrical exploration in "The Bag Man.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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