Jazz Duo Spans Generations

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Joe Lovano & Hank Jones

Kids:  Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (Blue Note)

I have often noted that saxophonist Joe Lovano, for all his greatness, does his best playing on other people's gigs. Well, he shares the billing here, but once again, he achieves the unrestrained feeling I've mostly heard from him when someone else is in charge. Maybe here it's because Joe knew he could relax, secure in the certainty that everything was going to be taken care of without him worrying about it when the only other guy on the bandstand was pianist Hank Jones, who's always got twice as much experience as anyone else in the room (unless Barry Harris is in the room, but even then Hank has the edge).

There's no new ground broken here; basically, bebop of the most harmonically advanced variety, this is more conservative than a fair amount of Lovano's work. Yet it sounds incredibly fresh, the interaction of two masters of improvisation happy to paint inside the lines because they know they can do so much within them. Though he throws in the occasional avant timbre for spice (notably on "Four in One"; Thelonious Monk has always seemed to be the composer whose tunes Lovano sounds happiest playing), Lovano's tone here generally exhibits a Ben Websteresque warmth that would be out of place in more modern contexts, but which perfectly complements the intimacy of this encounter.

And Jones? He is one of a kind at this point; he turned 90 in July and was 87 when this album was recorded in April 2006. He grew up listening to stride pianists, came of musical age during the height of swing, and picked up on bebop after moving to New York City in 1944, and all of those styles can be heard in his playing to this day. And more: when the harmonies on the closing "Lazy Afternoon" exhibit Impressionist gauziness, it's clear Jones has big ears and kept listening to new players long past his maturity, absorbing their developments into his style. When playing by himself, he uses the density of sound that the early players specialized in (and his bass lines sometimes have that athletic quality), but he swings like crazy and is at home in the lushest chord changes, equally adept at virtuoso solos or lyrical accompaniments.

I don't mean to say his lyricism and his virtuosity are dichotomies; for proof, check out his solo "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'." Anyone who thinks this stuff is old hat, who thinks he's too hip for Hank, doesn't know what's hip. Lovano knows, and kudos to him for this project. This CD came out a year ago, but I didn't get it until recently; it's just too enjoyable to let pass without comment.