As a major figure in the jazz firmament, Joe Lovano brings all the treasures of his vast experience to this excellent album, and also seems to have reached that stage in his career where purposeful improvisation combines with the ability to trigger a relaxed and natural interplay with other musicians. He brings the song-based sensibility, the bebop history and a rhythmic ease of his tenor playing to the proceedings, where it blends effortlessly with the spaciness of sound one associates with an ECM recording. He has previously toured with Marcin Wasilewski (piano), Slawomir Kurkewiecz (double bass) and Michal Miskiewicz (drums), guesting on the trio’s acclaimed Artic Riff album (2020 – ECM). ‘Homage’ emerged from a week’s residency at the Village Vanguard in 2023 and was recorded at the Rudy van Gelder studio. The title – and the title track – also pay homage to the producer of the album, Manfred Eicher.
“Love in the Garden”, the opening composition, is the only non-Lovano tune and was penned by the late Polish violin virtuoso Zbigniew Seifert. It displays the tremendous character of Lovano’s tone, the phrasing loose and free, Miskiewicz’s percussion like the romantic echoes of a city at dawn and Wasilewski’s exquisite piano enfolding the whole like a tender whisper.
The first of the two long-form pieces, “Golden Horn”, echoes the riff from “A Love Supreme” as its foundation in the bass and Lovano’s solo starts in a conversational and confessional tone at the start before rippling into a beautifully controlled flurry of sound, fluid and tumbling like a water cataract. Wasilewski’s solo maintains the flow, with Lovano re-entering the fray with a more angular approach, seemingly on the tárogató, the Hungarian clarinet-like instrument he also plays, stabbing out notes before the percussive fade-away. A real highlight of the album.
“Homage” is also a striking piece, full of atonality and open space, marked by an opening salvo like alarmed bird calls from Lovano and Wasilewski’s piano solo similarly impactful and shard-like. There is also a short but beautifully balanced and discursive bass solo from Kurkewiecz before an extended percussive mix brings the piece to a reflective end. Indeed, the mix of percussive instruments in parts of the album felt a bit rich at times.
Another highpoint of the album is “Giving Thanks”, a masterful but for me too short tenor solo piece from Lovano, his breathy tone wonderfully controlled throughout and sounding eerily like an insistent and memorable argument in your ear. The second long piece, “This Side – Catville” contains what feels like the most free of Lovano’s improvisations, all flurries, stabs and squeals of notes against the complementary drumming of Miskiewicz, the pulse felt rather than heard at times. This is followed by Wasilewski’s chasing piano solo, underpinned by Kurkewiecz’s solid bass notes, before Lovano re-enters the fray to conclude the 12-minute journey.
This is an album of real chemistry, one where the key ingredients of rhythmic freedom, variety of expression and interplay come together so well you want to repeat the experience immediately. Lovano has delivered a masterclass in free-flowing spontaneity. Absolutely recommended.
