Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard

Lovano, Joe

album cover

Two Bands, One Leader, Worlds Apart

Personality is crucial to jazz. Everything about the music can change, drastically, depending on the players involved, their curiosity, their inclination to connect with each other, and the vibe in the room. This live two-CD set amounts to a primer on those dynamics, showing how a masterful improviser will adjust his approach to fit the surroundings. Each disc is devoted to a different band, with saxophonist Joe Lovano leading two different rhythm sections he played with regularly during the mid-1990s. One group, with the trumpeter Tom Harrell, hangs out at the far edges of modernism, utilizing elements of "free jazz" in crafty ways. The other, with pianist Mulgrew Miller, is more rooted in the bebop tradition; its repertoire includes up-tempo romps and tricky tunes by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane.

Lovano doesn't completely change his stripes, but his playing does take on the character of each group. On the more agitated disc one, the rhythm section cultivates a careening, applecart-upsetting mode of discourse; this inspires Lovano to fits of phenomenal dexterity and fluttering, impossible-to-transcribe phrases. With the more traditional group on disc two, he trafficks in big beefy phrases that snag every offbeat and fleeting rhythmic permutation. And at the same time, he's a warm soul just singing through the horn: His solo on disc two's "Lonnie's Lament" is a typically endearing statement, full of broadly lyrical lines.

Lovano is one of the few soloists of his generation to gain training in the touring big bands (he spent time with Woody Herman). When he's really running hot, Lovano brings jazz history to life. In the same solo, he can sound like a growly barnstormer from the Basie band of the 1930s, or an effete avant-garde experimentalist whose art is all about "shapes and colors."

Each band reaches astonishing peaks. Listening to the two documents back-to-back, it's impossible to miss Lovano's sharp instincts and extraordinary flexibility, characteristics crucial to the dynamic of jazz. The music's moving in one direction, and then out of nowhere Lovano gets a wild idea. The scenery changes, and suddenly the music's on a different continent.

Genre: Jazz
Released: 1996, Blue Note
Key Tracks: "Fort Worth," "Uprising," "Lonnie's Lament," "Reflections," "This Is All I Ask."
Catalog Choice: Celebrating Sinatra; Joyous Encounter; On Broadway, Vol. 3 (with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell)
Next Stop: Dexter Gordon: Go!
After That: Eric Alexander: New York Calling
Book Pages: 456–457