Memoirs serves as a tidy summation of Paul Bley’s gifts as an individual and musical conversationalist. It helps that he converses with old friends. Paul Motian is, roughly, to the drums what Bley is to the piano, capable of sculpting icy, paradoxical emotions; on moment’s notice, they can venture “out” where tonal centers and rhythmic pulses are not invited. And there, always, is the fundamental Charlie Haden, who demonstrates how a few well-placed notes and well-observed silences can lock a group texture into place. – Josef Woodard