Live At Birdland
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Release Date: 13/05/2011
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
A quartet of master musicians and a program of jazz classics. LIVE AT BIRDLAND presents the finest moments from two inspired nights at New York's legendary club, as Konitz, Mehldau, Haden and Motian play "Loverman", "Lullaby of Birdland", "Solar", "I Fall in Love Too Easily", "You Stepped Out of a Dream" and "Oleo" with freedom, tenderness, and a love of melody that only jazz's greatest improvisers can propose.
REVIEW
"This week," reported the New York Times in December 2009, "Birdland has booked an ad hoc quartet with three eminences and a great younger player. (.) It's going to be a week of soft anarchy, a gig without preparation or rehearsal, despite the presence of recording microphones for a couple of evenings. The jazz musician's trust in the present moment is elevated nearly to worship among this group's elders, all of whom, one way or another, were in on the early stages of loosening up rhythm and structure in jazz." -- New York Times
ABOUT THE ARTIST
All of the musicians have some previous ECM history. Konitz contributed to Kenny Wheeler's classic Angel Song in 1996, while Mehldau played on a pair of Charles Lloyd discs, "TheWater Is Wide" and "Hyperion With Higgins", drawn from an inspired session in December 1999.
Haden's and Motian's associations with ECM go back almost to the beginning of the label's history. Haden's first ECM appearance was in 1972, as a contributor to Motian's "Conception Vessel", Paul's first album as a leader. Both men recorded for ECM with Keith Jarrett's American Quartet (the epic "Survivors' Suite" and "Eyes of the Heart"). Haden's also been heard on ECM with Pat Metheny, Denny Zeitlin, Carla Bley, and the much-loved "Magico" trio with Jan Garbarek and Egberto Gismonti. He's also led his own large ensemble on Ballad of the Fallen (also with Paul Motian). Last year, after a longer absence, he returned to the label with a series of duets with Keith Jarrett: "Jasmine".
Paul Motian's considerable ECM discography as leader of his own groups includes a series of highly acclaimed albums by the trio with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano, as well as a recent recording in trio with Jason Moran and Chris Potter, "Lost In A Dream" Motian has also drummed on a wide range of other albums for ECM - with Paul Bley and Gary Peacock, Enrico Rava, Bobo Stenson, Arild Andersen, Marilyn Crispell, and more.
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