Paul Motian

Selected Recordings is volume 16 of ECM's :rarum series, in which artists compiled music from their own ECM catalogue. Paul Motian chose nine of his own compositions from six albums recorded between 1972 and 1987. The span runs from Conception Vessel, his debut as a leader, through the trios and the band of the following decade. It puts the composer behind the drummer in plain view.

The title track of Conception Vessel was recorded in New York in November 1972, a duo with Keith Jarrett at the piano. Four pieces come from the trio with saxophonist Charles Brackeen, which changed bassist between its two albums. Dance and Asia are from Dance (recorded 1977), Folk Song for Rosie and Abacus from Le Voyage (1979). Both were made at Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, as were Psalm, source of Fantasm and Mandeville, and the 1984 trio album with Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano. The most recent track, One In Four, comes from The Paul Bley Quartet. Pianist Paul Bley recorded it at Rainbow Studio in Oslo in November 1987 with Frisell, Motian and John Surman.

The order ignores chronology. The disc opens with One In Four, the latest recording, with Surman on soprano saxophone, and only then goes back to the 1972 duo. It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago is a trio of drums, guitar and tenor saxophone with no bass, and Motian leaves much of the space open. Fantasm and Mandeville, from the 1981 sessions of the Paul Motian Band, bring Frisell and Lovano into a larger group with a second saxophone and bass.

The twenty :rarum volumes appeared between 2002 and 2004, each selected by the artist and digitally remastered. Writing on Between Sound and Space in 2020, Tyran Grillo said the selection made him rethink the idea that Motian liked to "play around the beat". He asked whether "Motian redefined what the beat meant to begin with". He called the title track of the 1985 album "Motian's 1985 masterpiece with Frisell and tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano".

This is the CD edition, :rarum 16 (014 204-2), released on 26 January 2004 in the second batch of the series, volumes 9 to 20.