Concord Records © 2009
— John Fordham, The Guardian
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Featuring: John Patitucci, bass; Joe Lovano, tenor saxophone; Brian Blade, drums; Sachi Patitucci, cello; Rogerio Boccato, percussion
Patitucci is the pounding double-bass motor within Wayne Shorter's brilliant quartet - and that band's drummer, Brian Blade, joins him here in a tribute to the music of tenor saxists John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins and Michael Brecker, with Joe Lovano handling the awesome task of invoking the spirits of all four. With this stripped-down lineup, it's naturally a pure-bred jazz improv album, but such a focused and driven one that any open-eared listener can hear its eloquence. Monk/Trane is a masterly redevelopment of the Giant Steps chords, drawing on Lovano's full panoply of runs and split-note climaxes. Messiaen's Gumbo is an enigmatic tenor melody over the leader's funky ostinato on bass guitar, while Sonny Side combines Rollins's gruff tenderness, patiently cumulative melodic buildups and weighty swing. Joe Henderson's cryptic and muscular energy is invoked by Joe Hen, and the grooving Mali finds Lovano taking a glancing, Andy Sheppard-like lightness of phrasing out into a briefly squalling finale over Patitucci's electric vamp. It's state-of-the-art contemporary jazzmaking, and much more varied in idiom and tonality than the lineup might suggest.— John Fordham, The Guardian
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