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| Joe Lovano |
Tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano launched
the third concert of the Paradise Jazz Series, and drummer Brian Blade’s The
Fellowship Band closed it. The two leaders shared a double bill Friday
evening at Orchestra Hall in mid-town Detroit where the PJS is held. Both leaders are from divergent points
of the jazz spectrum. Lovano is a post-bop heavy, and Blade is, somewhat of an
experimentalist. Of the two, Lovano has logged the most frequent flier miles, having
a colored career spanning four-plus
decades, and also being one of the major faces of the famed Blue Note Records
for 30 plus years. Lovano has made over 20 albums. As he’s proven throughout his career, and which was on full display
Friday evening, he’s a saxophonist who plays every single note with a sense of
purpose and beauty. There’s nothing pretentious about his playing. During his too-short set with his current working band, the Classic Jazz Quartet – pianist Lawrence
Fields, bassist Peter Slavov, and drummer Lamy Istrefi—Lovano treated the near-capacity audience to some of his original
material, opening the set with “Fort Worth”.
The quartet burned rubber on that number from the start to the conclusion. Then
moved into a slower tempo gem titled “Our Daily Bread”. There was some fist pumping soloing from Fields and
Slavov. It was Lovano who captivated playing sweetly cadenzas at the end of several tumes. The quart had the stage sufficiently preheated for Blade.
Blade, one of the greatest living jazz
drummers, and a key member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet
is no stranger to the PJS. He’s performed the series many times with Shorter,
and Blade performed the opening 2016-2017 series as a member of the Chick Corea Trio.
However, Friday evening was Blade’s first time at the series as a bandleader.
It was a gamble booking Blade’s The Fellowship Band, which has a decidedly different
approach to swinging. The core PJS demographic favors bop and post-bop. That’s
what that core audience have been fed
since the PJS launched. Blade is a magician, however, and the entire set he had
the audience drooling. Blade performed with only one commercial break to
introduce his bandmates saxophonists Myron
Walden and Melvin Butler, pianist Jon Cowherd, and bassist Chris Thomas. The
band played a kind of modernist swing no jazz critic has categorized yet. Blade
called tunes from The Fellowship’s discography. The tunes had a recognizable formula,
starting at a slow molasses thick tempo, and then midway through the band started
hauling ass. Blade chops power The
Fellowship much like his chops power Shorter’s quartet. Blade is
inarguably one of a kind. And the success of his all too short set Friday evening
was a gamble proved worth taking. Pairing Lovano with Blade was a fitting
contrast that worked.
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