Garden of Eden is an album by jazz drummer Paul Motian

Paul Motian

Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...

 recorded in 2004 and released on the ECM label in 2005.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "Motian has been on a creative and compositional tear, and has been since the mid-'80s. This set is ambitious, full of humor, charm, warmth, and grace; it sings, whispers, talks, and at times it shouts; ultimately it offers listeners an intimate look at the complexity and beauty in the continually evolving soundworld of an artist who is a true musical giant".

Track listing

All compositions by Paul Motian except as indicated

1. "Pithecanthropus Erectus" (Charles Mingus
   Charles Mingus
   Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
   
   ) - 7:06
2. "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
   Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
   "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" is a jazz standard composed by Charles Mingus originally recorded by his sextet in 1959 as listed below, and released on his album Mingus Ah Um. Mingus wrote it as an elegy for saxophonist Lester Young, who had died two months prior to the recording session...
   
   " (Mingus) - 4:56
3. "Etude" - 5:21
4. "Mesmer" - 4:39
5. "Mumbo Jumbo" - 3:34
6. "Desert Dream" (Chris Cheek) - 3:18
7. "Balata" (Steve Cardenas) - 3:39
8. "Bill
   Bill (Show Boat)
   "Bill" is a song heard in Act II of Kern and Hammerstein's classic 1927 musical Show Boat. The song was written for Kern and P.G. Wodehouse's 1917 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! for Vivienne Segal to perform, but withdrawn because it was considered too melancholy for that show...
   
   " (Jerome Kern
   Jerome Kern
   Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
   
   ) - 3:04
9. "Endless" - 3:30
10. "Prelude 2 Narcissus" - 3:05
11. "Garden of Eden" - 4:09
12. "Manhattan Melodrama" - 4:43
13. "Evidence" (Thelonious Monk
    Thelonious Monk
    Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...
    
    ) - 3:31
14. "Cheryl" (Charlie Parker
    Charlie Parker
    Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
    
    ) - 2:00

Personnel

• Paul Motian
  Paul Motian
  Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist and composer of Armenian extraction.He first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans, and later led several groups...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Chris Cheek
  Chris Cheek
  Chris Cheek is an American jazz saxophonist. He has worked as a sideman on more than sixty albums in his career, and has been bandleader of four critically acclaimed solo albums.-Biography:Cheek was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri...
  
   - tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  , alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Tony Malaby
  Tony Malaby
  Tony Malaby is a post-bop jazz tenor saxophonist. Malaby moved to New York City in 1995 and has played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band, Mark Helias’s Open Loose, Fred Hersch’s Trio + 2 and Walt Whitman...
  
   - tenor saxophone
• Jakob Bro
  Jakob Bro
  Jakob Bro is a Danish jazz guitarist. Bro has never received any musical training besides short periods spent at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, the Berklee College of Music in Boston and New School University in New York...
  
  , Ben Monder
  Ben Monder
  -Biography:Monder attended the University of Miami. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians including Lee Konitz, Toots Thielmans, Paul Motian and Maria Schneider....
  
  , Steve Cardenas
  Steve Cardenas (musician)
  Steve Cardenas is an American musician.While beginning his musical career in Kansas City, Steve has been an integral part of the jazz community in New York for fourteen years....
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Jerome Harris - bass