Garden of Eden
Drummer Paul Motian leads a septet here with saxophonists Chris Cheek and Tony Malaby (the tenor tandem of Charlie Haden'sNot in Our Name) and three guitarists—-Steve Cardenas, Ben Monder, and Jakob Bro—-along with Jerome Harris on bass. It's almost as if Motian has multiplied his usual all-star trio with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell, most recently heard onI Have the Room above Her. The expansion somehow creates a more open field, matching ECM’s characteristically spacious sound with richly-textured, overlapping and echoing lines. This is ensemble music with a sense of continuous, collective collaboration, the band taking a fresh look at the canon with inspired versions of Monk, Mingus and Charlie Parker tunes (the tenor dialogues can suggest a Mingus band). It's also a forum for Motian's own lyrical writing, while Cardenas contributes the beautiful "Balata," a reflective tune with a Caribbean undercurrent.--Stuart Broomer