1974 Paul Motian Video Interview

Great interview with Paul Motian in 1974 when he was playing with Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet. From videographer John Hunt, “In 1974 I began recording Gerald Wilson at KBCA-FM radio in Los Angeles when he would broadcast his show Jazz Capsule, which went on the air every weekday at Noon. Gerald would interview Jazz musicians and during the two hours would play their music and talk. It was a very popular show. Instead of the Sony Port-a-Pak, for this session we were using a Sony AV-3650, which recorded on 1-hour reels of ½-inch videotape. It was a table model; no batteries. We had two cameras, one locked off next to Gerald, and mine a portable monochrome Sony. My partner Paul Challacombe ran the switcher and recorder. There are a couple of glitches in the recording, which is typical with tapes that are almost 50 years old. Today’s users of iPhones have no idea what it took to shoot, transfer, edit, and archive these tapes. That we can still view them is some sort of miracle. Paul was a “drummer of the new breed” as Gerald called him. Gerald was “old school” but he knew about the new musicians, like Keith Jarrett and Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and could appreciate what they were trying to do.”


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