Joe Lovano © Andrea Canter

Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano has become one of the most celebrated jazz artists of his generation. Growing up in Cleveland, the son of tenor saxophonist Tony “Big T” Lovano studied with his father and absorbed the influences of Sonny Stitt, James Moody, Gene Ammons, Rashaan Roland Kirk, and Dizzy Gillespie, and later the experimental work of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Jimmy Giuffre. After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Lovano made his recording debut with organ master Lonnie Smith and worked with Jack McDuff before joining Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd. He went on to perform with top big bands and touring artists, winning critics’ polls for performance and releasing a series of acclaimed recordings that garnered many Grammy nominations. He held the first Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance at Berklee and currently heads the Caramoor Jazz Festival in upstate New York.

Joe Lovano’s recorded output over the past decade is nothing short of phenomenal, particularly given the wide range of ensemble formats as well as outstanding musicianship. The Joe Lovano Quartets at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1996) was named "Jazz Album of the Year" in the 1996 Down Beat Readers Poll and earned two Grammy nominations. With string quartet, woodwind quintet, voice and rhythm section in arrangements by Manny Albam, Lovano’s Celebrating Sinatra (Blue Note, 1997) followed with another Grammy nomination, and was described by Peter Watrous (New York Times) as “a perfectly balanced piece of work, quiet chamber jazz at its best, with Mr. Lovano's odd phrasing, with its halts and velocity, taking the music somewhere new." Flying Colors (Blue Note, 1998), a duo with virtuoso Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, was awarded four stars by the Los Angeles Times, which noted that “piece reveals yet another perspective on the talent of two extraordinary players, clearly inspired by the setting and each other, creating some of the finest jazz in recent memory."

Next came Trio Fascination: Edition One (Blue Note, 1999) featuring Joe with the incredible rhythm section of drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Dave Holland, prompting the Times of London to comment that "in Joe Lovano…the trio format has found one of its most natural exponents since Sonny Rollins or Joe Henderson...this is state-of-the-art trio jazz." With the follow-up Trio Fascination, Edition Two (Blue Note, 2000), Lovano received his third “Jazz Artist of the Year” honors in both the 2001 Down Beat Critics’ & Reader’s polls.

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra

In 2004, Joe Lovano went in yet another direction with I’m All for You, his first of two recordingswith his long-time collaborators George Mraz and Paul Motian, and featuring keyboard legend Hank Jones. While I’m All for You was an all-ballads recording, the sequel, Joyous Encounter (Blue Note, 2005) was a more diverse program that featured Monk, Coltrane, and Thad Jones’ charts. In a sense this recording is a Jones Family tribute, as Lovano was mentored early in his career in Thad’s bands and collaborated with both Hank, who again is on piano, and the late Elvin Jones, who recorded two tracks on the current playlist, Coltrane’s “Crescent” and Oliver Nelson’s “Six and Four.”

The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra

CJO Director Jack Schantz

The CJO was formed over 20 years ago. Today the orchestra typically has nineteen leading professional musicians from Northeast Ohio, although at times the band may expand to 25 or more musicians. Most CJO members are full-time musicians as well as jazz educators, including the leaders of jazz programs at area colleges such as the University of Akron, Ashland College, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Kent State University, Oberlin and Youngstown State. The CJO is directed by trumpeter Jack Schantz

Last fall, Joe Lovano appeared as guest artist with the CJO during its concert season in Cleveland. The booking at Birdland grew from this partnership. The expected playlist includes Dave Morgan’s arrangements of Lovano’s music, as well as Morgan’s jazz suite, The Surprise of Being which premiered in Cleveland last November.

Birdland is located at 315 W. 44^th Street (between 8^th and 9^th Avenues) in Manhattan; reservations at www.birdlandjazz.com