Hank Jones/Joe Lovano Duo

Many pianists make a name for themselves playing in a band led by a wind player. Not so Hank Jones. Not being the accompanist type, he prefers the leading part. He often plays with his own trio, with the pick of the bunch on string bass: George Duvivier, Ray Brown, Milt Hinton, Ron Carter or George Mraz; or with a quartet, with a remarkable range of trumpet players: Art Farmer, Joe Newman, Ernie Royal, Joe Wilder and Clark Terry. Over the years, his piano playing has become more mature and more dynamic. The carefully placed notes of the old days are now interspersed with sharp commentary. And because Jones usually plays with enormous control, almost introverted, these outbursts are highly functional. Like no other living jazz musician, Joe Lovano incorporates the entire jazz tradition into his playing technique. Not that he peppers his music with quotes, though. Instead, he has familiarised himself with the idiom. His music simply breathes jazz. Lovano can play anything: a well-known jazz classic, an easy blues, or a tearjerker from a musical or an opera. He puts so much feeling, intensity and swing into every note that, no matter what style he is using, he reveals the musical essence of the piece. In Lovano's sublimely conceived music, there is only room for surprise and pure delight: his own, but also of his fellow musicians, and naturally, of the audience.