Joe Lovano

About

Also known as: Joseph Salvatore Lovano

Joe Lovano is one of the most distinctive tenor saxophone voices in jazz, a player whose lines carry the weight and momentum of a whole horn section on their own. From Cleveland to Berklee and then straight into the New York jazz scene, he built his reputation through stints with Woody Herman and Mel Lewis before landing at Blue Note Records in 1990, where a string of genuinely varied records followed. Rush Hour stretched from solo performances to full big band arrangements, Tenor Legacy paired him with Joshua Redman, and the Grammy winning Symphonica brought in orchestral scale. Lovano has rarely stood still stylistically. His quintet Us Five, which featured Esperanza Spalding and a double drummer setup, aimed squarely at the avant garde and loft jazz spirit of the 1960s, while his Saxophone Summit project put him alongside Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker. He has also worked steadily with trumpeter Dave Douglas in the co led group Sound Prints, and later moved toward ECM Records, where the spacious, mellow aesthetic suits his more reflective side. He plays his own custom Borgani saxophone series, pearl silver body with 24K gold keys.