Album: Paul Motian, Lost in a Dream (ECM)

Bassist Charlie Haden once said that Motian played the drums "as if they were a musical instrument".

This trio set with saxophonist Chris Potter and pianist Jason Moran, recorded live in New York last year, consists of typically querulous, work-in-progress investigations of 10 dreamily sensitive "free ballads", all Motian originals except for Irving Berlin's "Be Careful it's My Heart". With no great variation in method the listener has a lot of work to do, but the pitter-patter of the drums' uneven pulse cues in some beautiful music.