Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian cover

Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian

Released

Talk about a supergroup, or a summit meeting. Three superstar jazz musicians, each with a very different stylistic background, coming together to make an album of both standards and originals and creating something simultaneously unique and traditional. The program opens with a splayed blues (“Eighty-One,” cowritten by Carter and Miles Davis) and proceeds to cover the traditional “Pretty Polly,” a Thelonious Monk obscurity (“Raise Four”), and a gently jaunty take on “On the Street Where You Live.” You could probably call this a straight-ahead jazz album, but it always sounds just off-kilter enough to make you sit up and listen hard.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Sound Unity cover

Sound Unity

William Parker
The Things We Did Last Summer cover

The Things We Did Last Summer

Scott Hamilton Quartet, Champian Fulton
Potsdamer Platz cover

Potsdamer Platz

Jan Lundgren
Viva cover

Viva

Diego Urcola
Focus Point cover

Focus Point

Luis Perdomo
Gamak cover

Gamak

Rudresh Mahanthappa
Into the Blue cover

Into the Blue

Nicholas Payton
Unholier Than Thou: 7/7/77 cover

Unholier Than Thou: 7/7/77

The Holy Modal Rounders, Unholy Modal Rounders