*** Paul Motian

TRIO 2000 + ONE

(Winter & Winter)

If this sounds like old new jazz, don't blame drummer Motian, since he's one of the guys who invented new jazz, both with the Bill Evans Trio (1959-'64) and the Paul Bley Trio (1963-'64). That is, a collective approach to trio improvisation (Evans, Bley) and loosely defined folkish song structures and free rhythms that nonetheless sustain tension throughout (Bley). The tension is due in part to Motian's earth-fire-air pulse and to the whole band's understanding of how to create climaxes through the strategic use of silence. Electric-bass sage Steve Swallow and young-tenor-of-the-moment Chris Potter round out the trio proper while acoustic bassist Larry Grenadier and pianist Masabumi Kikuchi alternate as "+ One." Kikuchi's solfeggio grunting is annoying at first, but his deployment of melodic fragments, near-rhapsodic chording, and open space fits the music. Otherwise, there are plenty of details to savor in these concise arrangements: Swallow's guitar-highs and throbbing lows set against Grenadier's rich bowing, Potter's balance of brawn and brains, the various moods the band can explore in a single piece. There's even a closing neo-bop tune for the groove-hungry.

-- Jon Garelick