Joe Lovano's Quartets Live at the Village Vanguard: A Worthy Reissue on Vinyl

Joe Lovano is a giant among 21st Century jazz musicians, in fact his body of work, while perhaps not as groundbreaking as those who came before him, should not be undervalued.

His run at Blue Note rivals some of those from the classic era. Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, and Donald Byrd, hyperbole? Not at all!

 25 years on Blue Note is proof, and this recent Blue Note  reissue of Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard is a welcome vinyl release; with volume 1 as the focus of this particular release.

 The album now rests comfortably next to Hank Mobley's Soul Station and Sonny Rollins' Newk's Time.

Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard is as enjoyable of a record as you will find in the 90's I know that. If it's not enough to get Joe at the peak of his powers, though 20 years later he sounds as good or better than even here, Tom Harrell joins Joe on this volume 1 in a pianoless quartet on trumpet and flugelhorn, with Anthony Cox on bass, and Billy hart on drums. Cox adds quite a lot to this music, he's very elastic in a bassist Ron Carter sort of way.

The second CD on the on vinyl issue features Lovano, Mulgrew Miller on Piano, with Lewis Nash on Drums, and Christian McBride on Bass. Joe alternates between tenor, soprano, and c melody saxophone throughout the double CD or download. This vinyl release has only the Tom Harrell quartet show, but you can get the music in total right here.

Quartets was the first time I was exposed to Tom Harrell, who is now a favorite of mine with some classic albums in his own right; like Sail Away and Stories, both are modern post bop classics of this 21st century jazz era.

This Specific volume 1 vinyl release has some fantastic music on it: As mentioned the piano-less quartet plays a style that would best compare to the Ornette Coleman Quartet with Don Cherry,

Trumpeter Harrell brings his own Sail Away to the Vanguard and it might be the best piece on the album, all the tracks stretch out nicely letting Joe shows off his Sonny Rollins' more than Joe Henderson tone this time.

Joe mentions here, a little back story about the album regarding 2 heavy weights of jazz on the production side, who both by the way were, and are instrumental in keeping this music alive for those who care.