The Dreamworld of Paul Motian

SSC1780 2025-08-15

Track List

Dreamworld - 3:50
Mumbo Jumbo - 5:33
Yallah - 3:54
Riff Raff - 3:05
Tacho (quartet) - 4:10
Prairie Avenue Cowboy - 3:33
It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago - 6:14
Umh Hum - 3:25
Tacho (solo) - 1:57
Byablue - 4:47
Arabesque - 4:10

Musicians

Anat Fort - piano
Steve Cardenas - guitar
Gary Wang - double bass
Matt Wilson - drums

Occasionally, there are musical visionaries who suggest new ways to approach performance and composition. Drummer Paul Motian was one of these visionaries. Though he has been gone for nearly 14 years, Motian’s freeing of the drums and folk-like melodies influence the generations that have followed him. Pianist Anat Fort continues to honor his sound and approach, dedicating her new recording, The Dreamworld of Paul Motian, to his memory and highlighting his music, both known and unknown.

Fort first heard Motian on recordings by the great Bill Evans Trio. She was immediately smitten with his musical approach to the drums and delved deeply into his catalog. When she moved to New York City, Fort made sure to catch all the Motian gigs that she could. Eventually, Fort began playing with longtime Motian associate, bassist Ed Schuller, and ventured to see if Motian would be willing to play with her.

Their first musical meeting would result in Fort’s 2007 recording, A Long Story. Motian’s enthusiasm for the music led him to propose release from ECM Records. From there they remained in touch, performing intermittently. Motian’s last performance before his passing was with a group Fort led at Cornelia St. Café.

Fort has long wanted to put together an album of pieces written by Motian. She had studied his music and lead sheets from the volumes of The Compositions of Paul Motian, which were compiled and published by Cynthia McGuirl, but she had a hard time deciding on which to record.

Concurrently, Fort realized that any project that she took on with Motian’s music would require more than a piano trio. She always considered Motian’s music as guitar driven, thus she reached out to guitarist and Motian alumni Steve Cardenas to become a part of the project. Cardenas would be instrumental in suggesting tunes and, eventually, assisting with mixing and mastering.

For the recording, Fort also enlisted her longtime collaborator and bassist Gary Wang, along with drummer Matt Wilson, on whose gig she first met Wang. The connection between the four musicians is deep, reinforced by Wilson and Cardenas’s connection to the Academic program of the New School that Fort teaches at in Tel Aviv and years of playing together.

The choice of material was hard to make, as there are Motian pieces that Fort considers untouchable. Fort delved deep into the Motian’s composition books and pieces supplied by former Motian bandmates in order to record and unveil five previously unrecorded Motian tunes along with some of his celebrated, released output.