The Paul Bley Quartet

Paul Bley, John Surman, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian

Released on 11/1/87 by ECM Records
Main artists: The Paul Bley Quartet John Surman Bill Frisell Paul Motian
Genre: Jazz

Available in

16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

This 1987 date teams the iconoclastic pianist with guitarist Bill Frisell, drummer Paul Motian, and British saxophonist John Surman. While it's easy to argue that, with Manfred Eicher's icy, crystalline production, this was a stock date for both the artists and the label, that argument would be flat wrong. Bley was looking for a new lyricism in his own playing and in his compositions. He was coming from a different place than the large harmonies offered by augmented and suspended chords and writing for piano trios. The other band members -- two other extremely lyrical improvisers in Surman and Frisell (who prized understatement as the veritable doorway to lyricism) and a drummer who was better known for his dancing through rhythms than playing them in Motian -- were the perfect foils. For the opening solos of "Interplay," Bley traipses around Frisell with a sparse elegance as the guitarist single notes his way into the heart of the piece's silence before Surman draws the entire band out of it with Bley painting the backdrops in the exit. Or there's Surman's "One in Four," written for Bley, in which the pianist moves ahead, stating large middle- and low-register chords as a melody, settling it in D minor and waiting for the band to fill in the pieces before expanding the textural palette to include his own sense of rhythm and a folk song melody in his solo. Breathtaking. The only dud is Frisell's skronk piece, "After Dark," which would have been fine for Naked City, but feels completely out of place here.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo

More info

The Paul Bley Quartet

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From $10.83/month

Interplay

00:20:19

PAUL MOTIAN, Drums, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Jan Erik Kongshaug, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Paul Bley, Composer, Piano, AssociatedPerformer - John Surman, Saxophone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Bill Frisell, Guitar, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Manfred Eicher, Producer - The Paul Bley Quartet, MainArtist