Joe Lovano: Quartets Times Two

Recorded in March 1994 by a band featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell, bassist Anthony Cox, and drummer Billy Hart, the first disc travels through the quartet territory first mapped by Ornette Coleman. Even on standards, there's a sense that everyone is an equal contributor to the music and that boundaries are fluid. Because they listen carefully to one another, however, the music never sounds chaotic. Lovano's muscular, vocally inflected tone, Hart's bold cymbal work, Cox's responsiveness and drive, and Harrell's concentrated lyricism make the music sing and dance with a warmth uncommon in free settings.

On "Uprising," Lovano's C-melody sax treads the middle ground between tenor and alto, so his sound isn't as strident as Coleman's, yet he plays with poised urgency. Lovano's control of the color and shape of his notes is always precise; he never mistakes harshness for power. On "I Can't Get Started," he makes no more than passing mention of the tune, but his cashmere tone speaks volumes about romantic yearning, and his exquisite final notes are heartrending.

Harrell is a marvelous foil for Lovano, never losing his melodic instincts, clear articulation, or his smoldering tone with its focused core and diffuse edges. In his frequent dialogues with Lovano, he tosses off ideas that inspire the saxophonist, and his own solos teem with unexpected pauses or sudden lags and hairpin turns.

The second disc documents two nights in January 1995 played with pianist Mulgrew Miller, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Lewis Nash. The music draws from jazz classics by Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, and Miles Davis, and from the conceptual framework of bebop, with its greater differentiation between soloist and rhythm section. But the musicians play as big a part in the ultimate shape of the tunes as the idiom in which they work.

Given more room to solo, Lovano displays additional sides of his mature virtuosity. He never runs through changes mechanically but crafts a finished statement for each solo. On "Lonnie's Lament," he tames a restless energy into lines that race inevitably from his assertive low register into high, querulous broken phrases. Even on the lightning-fast "Little Willie Leaps," he never leans on formula; every line has its own contour, from craggy jumbles of abrupt phrases to long plush carpets of eighth notes. Monk's "Reflections" is an urbane essay delivered in his suave middle register, complex phrases thrown off with stylish ease.

The rhythm section sets each number's groove but remains flexible enough to follow Lovano's feints and darts. Nash, especially, is adept at bebop's conversational interplay, and McBride laces his bass lines between Nash's strokes and Miller's chords with ingenuity. Miller is always feeding harmonically rich chords to Lovano, and the pianist's solos display rhythmic punch and melodic imagination. For these players, jazz is a living tradition.

Last year Rush Hour (Blue Note), Lovano's collaboration with composer Gunther Schuller, topped both critics' and readers' polls in Down Beat magazine. Quartets Live at the Village Vanguard is a strong contender for similar accolades in '96.

-- Ed Hazell

(The Joe Lovano Quintet, featuring trumpeter Tim Hagans and pianist Ken Werner, is at the Regattabar on March 13 and 14. Call 876-7777 for tickets and more information.)