Stephen Paul Motian was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer. He played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties.
Motian first came to prominence in the late 1950s in the piano trio of Bill Evans and later was a regular in pianist Keith Jarrett's band for about a decade. The drummer began his career as a bandleader in the early 1970s. Perhaps his two most notable groups were a longstanding trio with guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano as well as the Electric Bebop Band, in which he worked mostly with younger musicians on interpretations of bebop standards.