Paul Motian, one of jazz’s most inventive and masterful drummers, died on Nov. 22 at 4:52 a.m. in New York City. He was 80.


“He had this canny way of sounding like he didn’t know how to play the instrument,” DeJohnette said. “He played kind of bebopish in some of the licks, but even when he did that he sounded like Paul Motian. He had his own thing. Later, I heard him with Bill Evans at the Village Gate; he took a solo that was so amazingly funny I was in hysterics. I was on the floor laughing, just the way he played. It was so outlandish. And it was so un-drumistic. But so musical, the way he hit the instrument with abandon. Again, it sounded like somebody who didn’t know how to play the drums, but it made sense. That expanded even more when he played with Keith [Jarrett], because Keith allowed him more of that expanse. Paul’s like a painter. He’s a sound sculptor.”


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