Jazz Alchemist radio with Paul Motian and others

Paul Motian. Photo by Bernhard Lay. More photos here.

Tomorrow (Monday, 28.11) takes place the last concert of this year's Autumn Jazz Festival, thus there won't be any live program, but a pre-made playlist is ready to be uploaded directly on mixcloud. For those who can't attend the live event, couple of pieces by the Conference Call Quartet will be played

Apart from that, we'll continue our run through the cds reviewed during the summer, including "Consort in Motion" cd by Samuel Blaser where Paul Motian appeares. I guess, by this point, the sad news have reached everyone interested in jazz. Paul Motian passed last week, on 22.11., he was a true inspiration for musicians and listeners alike, he will be missed.

Hans Reichel playing daxophone.
Photo by Peter Gannnushkin

Unfortunately only once the program was ready and made, arrived another sad news - Hans Reichel - a truly original guitarist and an inventor of daxophone passed away also on 22.11. He doesn't appear in the playlist but let it be dedicated also to his memory

Paul Motian

Hans Reichel

R. I. P.

The mixcloud player and the playlist will appear below some time in the evening tomorrow. Come back and enjoy.


1. Conference Call Quartet -Quiet
2. Samuel Blaser, Paul Motian, Russ Lossing, Thomas Morgan - Passacaglia (from "Consort in Motion")
3. Szilard Mezei Wind Quartet - Innen (Black Cat) (from "Innen")
4. Conference Call Quartet - Translucent Tones
5. Ivo Perelman Quaret - The Hour of the Star (from "The Hour of the Star")
6. Samuel Blaser, Paul Motian, Russ Lossing, Thomas Morgan - Ritornello (from "Consort in Motion")
7. Jon Corbett's Dangerous Musics - The Lash (from "Kongens Gade")
8. Ivo Perelman Quartet - Singing the Blues (actually played by a pianoless trio, also from "The Hour of the Star")
9. Conference Call Quartet - What About...?
10. Samuel Blaser, Paul Motian, Russ Lossing, Thomas Morgan - Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (from "Consort in Motion")
11. Aram Bajakian's Kef - La Rota (from "Kef")

(edit: unfortunately I was asked to remove Samuel Blaser's recording from the mixcloud, the list above presents what was aired originally, track 2,6 and 10 were edited out from the mixcloud upload below)

Jazz Alchemist radio on 28.11.11. RIP Paul Motian by Jazzowy Alchemik on Mixcloud

Samuel Blaser. Russ Lossing, Thomas Morgan, Paul Motian - Consort in Motion [Kind of Blue]

Samuel Blaser - trombone
Russ Lossing - piano
Thomas Morgan - bass
Paul Motian - drums

Kind of Blue Records 2011

Samuel Blaser's name already resonates on jazz scene thanks to his quartet's releases and he has proven himself to be among the most accomplished trombone players of young generation in jazz music. "Consort in Motion" is another step in his career and it is a step in quite a different direction.

Blaser embarks on a difficult and ambitious project as he tries to merge two distant musical traditions - Jazz and Baroque music. He selected and re-arranged for this jazz ensemble compositions by Claudio Monteverdi, Biagio Marini and Girolamo Frescobaldi (or wrote his own compositions - using their music as an inspiration). Now I'm hardly to be called classical music afficionado and that robs me plenty of the intellectual pleasure one might find in deciphering the ways Blaser adapted the original material, but I still find here much to appreciate.