Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet

Saxophonist Joe Lovano built a formidable recorded legacy on Blue Note Records, beginning with 1990s Landmarks, running through 1999's 57th Street Themes and 2013's Soundprints —among many other albums on the famed label. But a side outlet for his artistry emerged on ECM Records, beginning with his side man slot on drummer Paul Motian's Psalm (1982). Though he boasts dozens of other side man appearances on ECM Records, he did not release an album under his own name for the label until 2019's Trio Tapestry with Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi. His work has since flourished at ECM, with six more album releases, including the disc at hand, Paramount Quartet.

While Blue Note Records is tagged (and tags should always be considered flexible) as a bop, hard bop, and newbop label, ECM Records is not. It is aligned with more of an Eurocentric way of making music, often cool and spacious, often incorporating Nordic or other European folk themes and a calmer and less gregarious aesthetic than that of Blue Note—and, admittedly, a lot of broad brushing is going on here. That said, Paramount Quarter on ECM—featuring guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Asante Santi Debriano and drummer Will Calhoun—finds common ground with the ECM intimacy and patient delivery of sound. The atmospheric album seems like a first cousin to Lovano's work with guitarist Bill Frisell on Motian's I Have The Room Above Her (2004) and Time And Again (2006), both on ECM.

Hints of Americana emerge, along with a subtle feeling of experiencing the sacred, especially on Wayne Shorter's "Congregation," and Lovano's "The Call" and "Fanfare For Unity."  Of the seven tunes presented here, five are Lovano originals—and he sounds like an artist who is supremely comfortable in his own skin with his writing and playing; it might be a "I am in the groove with nothing left to prove" thing.

As excellent as Lovano's work on Blue Note records was, his output on ECM is a step forward. Paramount Quartet says so, succinctly. Calhoun summons the spirit of Motian; Debriano supplies a warm, fluid pulse; Lage—a Blue Notes Records artist in his own right—slices space deftly, with a gentle hand. And Lovano is everything we have come to expect, with a beautiful touch and unerring grace for elusive melodies and intimate interaction with his bandmates.