http://www.timeout.com/newyork/music...-paul-motian-1
Joe Lovano: ""Every [one of Paul's compositions] was a little different, but they all had a real folk-song feeling. You could play his melodies over and over again for hours and express them in different ways. Paul wrote some really strong, powerful, beautiful, simple melodies. And some tunes had more structure, more harmonic sequences; some tunes just had a mood and a very simple little phrase. Paul could sustain a mood like no one else and create so much inner music within that."
""Speaking for myself, I heard the Keith Jarrett Quartet in 1971 or ’72 and I was 20 years old, and man, those were the cats I wanted to play with! It gave me a lot of direction in my development, and then I started playing with Paul in 1981, almost ten years later. The direction that Paul was in was always the most creative situation, and for me, that was my whole inspiration for my development as a player."
Bill Frisell: ""It sort of aggravates me how people still view [Paul] as this 'free,' 'abstract' [drummer]—all that kind of stuff. So many people miss that he had the heaviest, deepest beat I ever heard in my life. At this point i've played with some pretty extraordinary drummers. [Laughs] With Paul, no matter how abstract it got, his time feeling, the beat was just unbelievable. You could hear that, Wow, he's played with Coleman Hawkins and Monk and Oscar Pettiford. [His playing] had that direct artery going right back to that stuff. He's more known as—whatever the words they use—a "colorist." But somehow it all comes from that depth of the beat. The time feel is so deep that no matter how abstract he was, that was always there. I've never had a blood transfusion [Laughs], but playing with him was always like I was getting filled with juice."
Greg Osby: ""Like all great bandleaders, Paul was one of few words and very measured dialog. I have seen instances where he didn't call a player again if he had to offer too much counsel. His compositions are such great blueprints by design that he felt no further direction or discussion was necessary, or else you're out! His dismissals were as hilarious as his embracing of something he liked was heartwarming.
"Paul lives."
Joey Baron: ""Sometimes, he played almost naive. Many of his colleagues thought, Can he really play? Some of the moves he would make would be so blatantly simple or obvious, but when you listen back, it's just great, because there's an individual there, and that's how he heard music. He put it out there; he wasn't trying to fit in. He was just Paul. [Laughs] Some people liked it; some people didn't. But I'm glad he was Paul! "
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