Garden of Eden is the first ECM album by the group formerly called the Paul Motian Electric Bebop Band, and the new name marks a change of priorities. Bebop is still part of the programme, but Motian's own tunes now take most of the space. The line-up, formed at the beginning of the 1990s, remains unusual: two saxophones, three electric guitars, bass and drums. There is no piano, which leaves open space for the players to interact.
The septet was recorded in November 2004 at Avatar Studios, New York, with Manfred Eicher producing and James Farber as engineer. The saxophonists are Chris Cheek and Tony Malaby. Among the three guitarists is Ben Monder, whose interests run from ambient music and contemporary composition to rock. The youngest member is the Danish Jakob Bro, who commuted from Copenhagen whenever Motian had a gig. Each member also leads groups of his own. Motian, born in Philadelphia in 1931, played in the trios of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett. On his 1974 ECM album Tribute he was already using twin lead guitars.
Two pieces by Charles Mingus open the set. Pithecanthropus Erectus, his account of the rise and fall of man, is played very noir, and Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is his elegy for Lester Young. Motian's own tunes, among them Mesmer, Endless and the title track, are deliberately simple in form, so that attention falls on the shifting blend of guitars and horns. Cheek and one of the guitarists contribute a piece each. The album ends with Jerome Kern's Bill, Thelonious Monk's Evidence (which Motian had played with Monk in the 1950s) and Charlie Parker's Cheryl.
The album was a Choc du mois in Jazzman, Jazz-CD des Monats in Rondo and Disco del Mese in Musica Jazz. In The Washington Post, Steve Futterman wrote that "Motian's genius lies in maintaining an understated, lingering tension" and observed that "individual performances remain subordinate to the collective character of the septet". Reviewing the band in concert, The New York Times described a "gauzy, evenly distributed sound, hazy and beautiful", starting from a drummer whose every beat is phrased differently from the last.
This is the CD edition, ECM 1917, first released in February 2006.
