Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano is an American jazz saxophonist from Cleveland, Ohio, born in 1952. He works in hard bop, jazz and post-bop, and is known for playing tenor saxophone as well as for composing and leading a range of small and large ensembles.

Early life and training

Lovano grows up in a musical family. His father, Tony “Big T”, works as a barber and plays tenor saxophone; his uncles Nick and Joe also play tenor, and another relative, Carl, plays bebop trumpet. His mother, Josephine, and her sister Rose are serious jazz listeners. He begins on alto saxophone at five and switches to tenor a few years later. By the time he is sixteen, he is already a member of the Musicians’ Union, Local 4, and is working professionally, including club dates and Motown cover bands.

After high school he studies at Berklee in Boston, where he finds modal harmony and begins shaping an approach that combines the influence of late John Coltrane with more traditional settings. At Berklee he studies with Herb Pomeroy, Joe Viola, Andy McGee, John LaPorta and Gary Burton, and plays in Burton’s first ensemble on the faculty. Berklee later gives him a Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary doctorate, and names The Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance after him.

Career

After a short period on the road backing Tom Jones, Lovano returns to Cleveland and soon begins working with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith in Detroit and on the Chitlin circuit in 1974. He then spends six months with Brother Jack McDuff and the Heating System. He moves to Manhattan after spending time in New York clubs and sit-ins, and works with Chet Baker, Albert Daley and Rashied Ali.

In 1976 he joins Woody Herman’s 40th Anniversary tour, which includes a Carnegie Hall concert and other major appearances. He later spends three years with Herman, touring Europe and playing festivals, colleges and high schools, where he begins doing workshops and master classes. In 1980 he joins the Mel Lewis Orchestra under Bob Brookmeyer’s musical direction and remains part of the band’s Monday night Village Vanguard concerts for eleven years. During this period he also begins recording as a leader.

Lovano works with other large groups led by Carla Bley, Bob Brookmeyer, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Gunther Schuller, experiences that feed into his own larger ensemble work, including his Nonet. He begins playing with Paul Motian in 1981 in a trio with guitarist Bill Frisell, and that collaboration becomes a long-running part of his career. He also tours and records as a leader, and works with many prominent jazz musicians including Gunther Schuller, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, Carla Bley, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Brubeck, Billy Higgins, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Michel Petrucciani, Lee Konitz, Abbey Lincoln, Tom Harrell, McCoy Tyner, Jim Hall and Bob Brookmeyer.

In 1989 he begins touring and recording with John Scofield’s Quartet, a major profile-raising period that lasts until 1993. In 1991 he signs with Blue Note Records and continues to lead his own groups, releasing a large body of work as a leader.

Groups and projects

Lovano works in a wide range of formats, including unaccompanied saxophone and gongs, duets, trios, quartets, quintets, a Wind Ensemble, a Street Band and a Nonet. He is associated with the Paul Motian Trio, Scolohofo, Joe Lovano Us Five, Joe Lovano Nonet, Joe Lovano Quartet, All Stars Band, Joe Lovano Quintet, Paul Motian Quintet, Trio Tapestry, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, John Patitucci Trio and Tony Martucci Quintet.

He also plays drums on three Blue Note recordings and keeps a collection of gongs and a full drum sheet as part of his home studio practice.

Recognition

Lovano is widely regarded as an important modern tenor saxophonist. He receives a Berklee Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary doctorate, and he is appointed to Berklee’s first endowed chair, The Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance, in 2001. He lives in the Hudson River Valley area of upstate New York.