Saturday, April 5, 2008

Joe Lovano at Chris' Jazz Cafe Philadelphia PA 4.4.08



Among the greatest words a jazz fan can here are "I'll seat you now and you can stay for the evening, I'll only charge you for one set because we aren't too busy tonight." My colleague and a reunion of her doctoral cohorts decided not to stay and I was already drifting towards the stage where Lovano was about a third into his set.


My first impression coming in maybe 25 minutes or so into the first set is that he is as muscular a tenor player as I have ever heard. And interestingly enough that is also the adjective that the Philadelphia Free Paper used to describe his playing of which I hear all kinds of history: Sonny Rollins, Coltrane, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordon.

The waitress looked like Edward Scissorhands' sister. I really had not eaten all day except for a bit of bread product and some nuts so decided to really have a meal of it at Chris' Jazz Club. I went for a first course of French Onion Soup with pear arugala salad for my second. And during set break, my long wait for a barbecue platter complete with slaw, sweet potato fries, a rack of ribs and an exceptionally tender piece of chicken. With some sampling of regional beverages of course, most notable was a very fine amber by Stout's brewing called Scarlet Lady.

But Tastiest was Lovano's playing. I am convinced that jazz musicians who are really god do communicate with each other on a very deep level. Here comes a passage where he comes on like Sonny Rollins full of syncopated ferver. Joe steps off stage and lets his four muscicans go into various laps and phases. Was he pleased with the last solo? It seemed like it to me with the way his head bobbed at the end.

The evening, at least the first forty minutes or so had all been on tenor. But where I was sitting at that point I could not see about 40 degrees of the stage which included a piano player and surprise! another drummer. I know it seems strange to be listening to music for half an hour and not realize that there are two drummers on stage but thats what was the case was here. The key to what was going on with them was that they were handing off big pieces of the percussion to each other. The drummer with the wild hair looking like the bellman in Jarmusch's Mystery Train was sitting out and so I changed my chair to see the other fellow, whose name turned out to be Cameron Brown. Otis Brown, same last name, different hue of pigment, was the bassist.

Lovano back announced the first part of the set. The last burner was called Dawn of time, preceded by Sanctuary, Topsy Turvy, and Us Five, which which is a kind of title tune for the group he has now, The sound cut out of the announce mike and I couldn't tell what the next number was. I believe he said The Saxaphonist at Camarillo. Parker wrote a song called Relaxin' at Camarillo, but I don't believe that was it. What happened was that Joe switched over to soprano.

Now I was getting this band. Two drummers allows for added opportunities for conversation between the musicians. Good conversation should have some humor involved. And then there is a segue, Lovano is playing Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman on clarinet. Then there is a solid double drum work out with the bass and the pianist sitting out. Again, I'm struck by the fact when you have five musicians these kinds of subgroups can take over and have a fine tim of it for an interval. What's lovely with five on stage is that subgroups can take over and have a time at it. The drum and bass evolves to just a bass solo before Joe takes the stage with tenor again full of high drama. Its Rachmaninoff meets the lonely woman. And then its ballad time. Like any good explorer's club with a tenor at the helm, he knows he has to take his audience home and does that with what I later found out was Strayhorn's Little Brown Book. After the solo on that one, Lovano clearly acknowledges the mission was met. I'm not sure if there was another bop tune after the Strayhorn, but there was certainly a monster solo.

The club is small and Joe circulated among the jazz fans who came to see him during the set break. A couple near me were acquaintances at least and he was clearly celebrating the success and energy of the last set. I heard him say, "we had segues and everything."

I also got a quick Joe Lovano moment. I told him the last time I saw him he was on stage at PDX jazz on stage at the Schnitzer introducing Ornette Coleman. He replied that this was a great honor and thrill for him. He said he had known him for a long time (wasn't clear to me if he meant Ornette or festival director, also with Philly roots. I asked him about his group with two drummers. Knowing our ages are a bit close, I took a chance. "So two drummers, are you an Allman Brothers fan?" "Well that goes back a long ways in jazz. Remember Ornette used to do with that with Billy Higgins. He talked about what a thrill it was. "This is the first time I've been able to do this. There are a lot of places we can take the music. It's like playing in two quartets." I thanked him again and told him I was looking forward to the second set.

I felt dialed in to this band for the second set. There was a great section where Joe and bassist Cameron Brown let the drummers and the piano go at it. I was also watchful of how one or another of the drummers would play take the rhythm of a tune and then both would come in when Lovano would come in strong.

During second set the vibe changed. After my barbecue was done I moved closer because some guy with a loud fraternity voice came in late and had to rant to his girlfriend about his stuff that day while these artists were listening and communicating hard with each other. It only got worse. There was a large party that came in with a guy who later tried to defend himself with one of the drummers in the men's room later. "I don't know nothin' about jazz clubs, we just came in here because we were with these girls you know what I'm saying..." The noise increased in volume, but that did not stop Lovano and company.

There was a lot of Coltrane in the second set. In a suspended animation of a segue from a bop burner, the band launched into Central Park West, one of the most contemplative of saxaphone laments. After another drum and bass workout the lament turned into a fully explorative second solo. He calls out the band and goes into another tune that features all kinds of colors, first painted with clarinet and then english horn. The drummer solos also had dual coloration. One used mallets and later brushes while the other was in full effect. Joe returns again to the stage with a calypso riff straight out of Rollins and then into his version of Giant Steps, almost a fantasia of Giant Steps in which he played as strong a definition of what Coltrane fans called "Sheets of Sound"

Then it was Eddie Harris time. Joe taking us into a Freedom Jazz Dance, or at least his Freedom Jazz Dance with the kinds of effects and power that Harris used to. I don't know if the hope was that the ever increasing volume of the crowd (do I ever feel sorry for serious musicians who play in clubs, no wonder Miles turned his back on them) From FJD he returned to Strayhorn. A most lovely full throated version of Chelsea Bridge before bringing back another hard bopper to call it a night and the end of a two night run in Philadelphia. I settled my bill and took a walk down broad street with the tower of City Hall looking down on me.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:51 PM
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