I Have the Room Above Her

This 2005 album by drummer Paul Motion, guitarist Bill Frisell, and saxophonist Joe Lovano finds the trio 20-plus years into a singularly unique collaboration between three highly individual players. The elder statesman here, Motion is an elliptical player prone to playing melody and color rather than time, while Lovano’s dry saxophone melodies are a perfect counterpoint to Frisell’s liquid guitar textures. In this jazz trio, standard concepts of harmony and rhythm are handled by all with no formula for who does what and when. Thus, Motion’s songs (he's credited with all the originals) sound hard to pin down without ever being less than engaging. Indeed, there seem to be mysterious spells cast on tunes like “Osmosis Part III” and the swooping “Sketches.” Sometimes a cover can offer insight into a unique-sounding band, yet the dreamy version of the title track by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein (inscrutably) shows more ideas sublimated to the trio's vision.