Saxophonist Joe Lovano Shouldn't Be Overlooked as an All Time Great

One of the first modern day jazz artists that I pounced on when I discovered the genre was Joe Lovano.

What's not to love, a husky tenor tone similar to Joe Henderson or Ben Webster, and a very underrated creative streak that has always been a challenging and fun listen.

I can't think of a single album from Lovano that's been a stinker?

 Perhaps the Sinatra tribute and Viva Caruso were a bit of a stretch for my tastes, they just didn't move me like the ultra cool 52nd Street Themes, and Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard double album did. That was in the beginning of my jazz journey, the late 90's, now looking at Joe's body of work, I really like the guy's music, and hey were both Buckeye's, so were practically brothers right?

The Us Five music he's released like Folk Art, Bird Songs and Cross Culture can not be denied either for the original high quality post bop albums they are, at 60 years old he's still cranking out stuff this good, with Dave Douglas as well, I mean come on, Joe Lovano is a jazz giant.

When I think of Joe, I think about the Paris New Morning DVD of the 52nd Street Theme concert stuff circa 2000'; I find that concert to be breathtaking in sound and mood; I have a hard time believing any of those originals recordings sounded better at any time than Lovano's band did, even Charlie Parker or Tadd Dameron themselves! Of course production wise these current day albums sound great.

Joe has been with Blue Note records since his 1990 album Landmarks, that featured John Abercrombie on guitar and the underrated bassist Marc Johnson. Landmarks was a great first album for the label.

Blue Note, and I presume the late Bruce Lundvall should be given a lot of credit for marketing Joe so well, and to his credit he has had a pretty darned good run of music for the label the past 25 years.

Thankfully they have allowed Joe to expand is pallet with multiple instruments and settings.  With third-stream music (Rush Hour), avant-garde (Flights of Fancy Trio: Edition No 2 and Quartets Live VVG), and orchestral settings (Symphonica). Again, Joe really has done nothing wrong in the past 25.

I realize when judging a modern day saxophonist with the likes of Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane, things can get a bit murky.

How does Joe, or even a Wayne Shorter for that matter, live up to those legacies? Shorter might be the greatest living composer right now in jazz, perhaps Benny Golson could insert himself into that conversation?

I really do feel Joe Lovano will be valued much higher by future jazz scholars. You take these Blue Note albums the past 25 years, as well as the albums he's made with artists like Paul Motion, Dave Douglas, and Bill Frisell, Joe has been a monster in the music.

I have 30 discs of Joe's music, and Looking at his discography of side man contributions, I have some money to spend. Have you heard Conrad Herwig's The Latin side of Joe Henderson Yet? Guess who's doing Henderson's roll? That's right, you need that disc too.

Last but not least, Lovano's ballad playing is second only to Dexter Gordon in my opinion. I just love the husky tone, Dexter could milk a ballad, "Darn That Dream" off of Dexter's One Flight Up is a great Gordon example of ballad playing.

Joe  can melt the hardest heart too, on "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" Lovano does the deed.  I love the Symphonica version the best, the Symphony adds a touch of class, that could have turned to schmaltz, but oh what a lovely album that is.

I highly respect the man and the music. I have nearly all of  Joe's discs as a leader in my collection. Now I have the opportunity to add a vinyl copy of the classic Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 1. You can read what I had to say about that here.

Joe deserves to be thought of, and mentioned in the same breath as many of the other Blue Note greats of yesteryear. He's made his bones and then some.