On Broadway Vol.3: Deluxe Hardcover Edition

The core of Paul Motian's "On Broadway" band returns for this third offering, with bassist Charlie Haden and guitarist Bill Frisell holding down the fort this time and a pair of saxophonists on the front line in Lee Konitz and Joe Lovano. The approach of these records may be similar, but Motian is a supreme harmonist whose manner of hearing these nuggets suggests he is looking for something mercurial. Each of these versions, though completely recognizable, carries within it the hunt for the unexpected, the mysterious, the elliptical hidden trace of a crack underneath the song. Nowhere is this more true than the elegiac read of Harry Warren's "I Wish I Knew," where Frisell traces the melody and Konitz moves through it languidly and hesitantly, making each note carry the entire weight of the emotion in the tune. Elsewhere, Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight" reveals a secret swinging subtext with its new rhythm and Konitz's slippery solo that stands in sharp contrast to Motian's skittering snares and cymbals. In all this is a fine set and perhaps the most successful of the three volumes in this series. ~ Thom Jurek|