I was about 16 or 17 years old when I first heard the Sunday at the Village Vanguard, the Bill Evans trio album. It completely changed everything for me. I was young, but I was experienced enough to know that the "piano trio" had a specific purpose. And that was to make a piano virtuoso sound even better than he would as just a solo act. Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Ahmad Jamal, etc. The rhythm section accompanies the pianist. While this is concept of how to play jazz is as valid as any, it was trapped in its own genre.
The Bill Evans trio changed this. All were equal. I remember writing a live journal entry years ago about why I thought Scott Lafaro was the greatest musician of all time. His playing took the "walking" bass line out of context and, as I hear it, it's just continuous melody. However, his genius is not only this new approach, but the ability to still provide the foundation and the "normal" function of the bass in general. Paul Motion's approach to the drums was the same. He got rid of the standard swing beat and played primarily colors. Again, it swings like hell and provides the same musical information that any other drummer would provide. To use a Schaapism, this is an incredible insight: expand the typical functions of the rhythm section, and you get a piano trio that sounds nothing like anything that came before it. Colors, contours, dynamics, emotions. If Debussy freed classical music from form, harmony, rhythm, themes etc, than Bill Evans did the same for jazz.
Listen to the brush work of Paul on Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby and you'll get a full realization of what I'm talking about. His playing is romantic, delicate, colorful, groovy and highly original. His influence is heard in many of today's drummers and to use a contemporary example, the Brad Mehldau trio I would argue is a direct descendant of this approach to music making. I remember clearly me and Chris Reardon discussing the bass entrance on Alice In Wonderland. I remember trying to figure out how they could play with such elasticity. I remember feeling much older than I actually was and being s saddened that Lafaro died so young. I was fortunate to see Paul play with his own group a few years ago at Carnegie Hall. Joe Lovano and other were playing with him and they were doing some pretty out stuff. But his compositions were like his playing, it was out but not too out. His melodies were dissonant but romantic. And because of his playing, the group just sounded so unique. He'll be greatly missed. One of the last greats in jazz.
Here's the first song I ever heard by them:
