Joe Lovano is an old school jazzman. He came up in New York City in the 1970s paying his dues with everyone from Woody Herman to Chet Baker to the Mel Lewis/Thad Jones Orchestra. The 1970s was the last decade where the greats of modern jazz walked among us, and Lovano soaked up all those musicians could teach him. He has spent his career playing music both inside (see his Streams of Expressions band doing third stream music and his tributes to Sinatra and Caruso) and outside (his trios with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones and with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell). His tenor sound has a bit of Coltrane’s runs and register, a bit of Sonny Rollins’ big sound, and a bit of Stan Getz’s smoothness—all blended together to make his own tones.
Lovano’s latest band features drummers Otis Brown II and Francisco Mela, pianist James Weidman, and bassist Esperanza Spaulding. He calls the band “Us Five,” and their record Folk Art starts with the appropriately titled “Powerhouse” featuring some great riffng from Lovano as the dual drummers add accents amid their hard, steady beat. The record runs the gamut from the abstract meditations of “Wild Beauty” to the playful, unexpected rhythms of “Us Five” to his aulochrome (an instrument that seems to be two soprano saxophones welded together.) harmonies on “Dibango.”
When played onstage, Lovano structures the album as two suites of music, starting the set with high energy that goes for twenty to twenty fve minutes straight. The drummers will play off each other and add syncopations to complement notes that the bass player is adding or subtracting while the piano jabs chords in-between. It is joyous and eye-opening to hear musicians who are actively enjoying their interactions and making music together. If the Us Five set at the WWOZ Jazz Tent is as good as the set they played in February at the Village Vanguard, it will be as fine and refreshing a set of jazz as New Orleans hears all year.
