Joe Lovano - saxophonist

Joe Lovano (b. December 29, 1952, Cleveland, OH, USA) is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano.

One of the top saxophonists of the 1990s, Joe Lovano continues to grow and explore as a musician. He has a husky tenor tone and takes a modern approach to improvisation. In the early '80s he began working in John Scofield's quartet and a bass-less trio with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell. Steeped in the tradition of Ornette Coleman, Motian's recordings show off Lovano's avant-garde abilities. Scofield's quartet straddled the line between "inside" and "outside". These recordings feature some of Lovano's best work.

Lovano has enduring musical partnerships with John Scofield and Paul Motian, having participated in some of their most noteworthy projects over the years.

In 1993, at the suggestion of musicologist Gunther Schuller, fellow Clevelander and bebop guitar legend Bill DeArango recorded the album "Anything Went" with Lovano. "He was a major mentor for all of us round here," said Lovano. In 1999, having developed dementia, DeArango was taken into a nursing home, where Lovano visited him on December 26, 2005. Two hours after Lovano left, DeArango died. "He knew we were there," said Lovano. "His heartbeat raced. He knew we were there."

He is currently a jazz artist on the international level. His live work, specifically Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard, garnered a Down Beat "Jazz Album of the Year" award. Other releases include Trio Fascination and 52nd Street Themes. In the late 1990s, he formed the Saxophone Summit with Dave Liebman and Michael Brecker (now deceased, replaced with Ravi Coltrane). He played the tenor saxophone on the critically acclaimed 2007 McCoy Tyner album Quartet. In 2006 Lovano released Streams Of Expression, a tribute to two different genres of jazz, cool and free. He did this with the help of Gunther Schuller who contributed his "Birth Of The Cool Suite". It was a surprise that Lovano and his nonet did not win the Grammy for best large ensemble jazz record of 2006. Joe Lovano and Hank Jones released an album together in June 2007 entitled Kids. Lovano also currently leads his quartet with Berklee Faculty and students Esperanza Spalding, James Weidman, and Otis Brown.

He has been the teacher of Jeff Coffin after the latter received an NEA Jazz Studies Grant in 1991.

Joe Lovano has been playing Borgani saxophones since 1991 and exclusively since 1999. He has his own series called Borgani-Lovano, which uses Pearl-Silver Alloy with Gold 24K keys.