With his first few notes he traced a syncopated vamp, quickly adopted by the bassist Lonnie Plaxico and the drummer Andrew Cyrille. Then Mr. Lovano pulled back, letting the groove lock in, and started splashing colors around: a plunging eighth-note line, a foghorn low tone, a fast chromatic scribble. He was making himself at home, with casual effort but concentrated effect.
Coltrane Revisited Joe Lovano, in a celebration of what would have been John Coltrane's birthday, at Birdland on Wednesday night.
Mr. Lovano and his partners are working this week as Coltrane Revisited, a project he has mobilized roughly every year this decade to celebrate John Coltrane’s birthday. (Wednesday would have been his 83rd.) As usual, the joint headliner is the pianist Steve Kuhn, who worked in an early incarnation of Coltrane’s landmark quartet at the dawn of the 1960s. Mr. Kuhn waited a while to make his entrance during the set’s opener, “Fifth House,” but when he did, partway through Mr. Lovano’s solo, the chords he chimed refocused the picture, sharpening every detail.
