Lost in a Dream ECM* * * * *

Caught live in New York last year, Paul Motian leads Chris Potter and Jason Moran through a programme of his deceptively simple but sophisticated compositions to produce music of great depth and beauty. Motian, a supreme colourist whose idiosyncratic drumming is a singularly effective mix of delicacy and astringency, is adept at opening up space and choice for those around him. Moran, a pianist not averse to tartness, fits the emotional climate of this

music like a glove, gelling wonderfully with Motian and, as a soloist, offering the most sensitive of contrasts to

Potter’s tenor. When Potter is spare and laconic, he adds a touch of volubility; when Potter is expansive, he is a model of restraint. And, with the emphasis on rubato ballad playing, Potter is in transcendant form in what is, at times, a jazz lieder recital of beguiling intimacy and emotional power. See ecm records.com