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To no attentive follower of Joe Lovano (Cleveland, Ohio; 1952) had to surprise the record company swap signed by the North American saxophonist last 2019, after almost three decades of relationship with the mythical Blue Note label. ECM Records then became his brand new brand as leader of the hand of a plan baptized as Trio Tapestry and in which the pianist was also involved Marilyn Crispell and a former collaborator, the drummer and percussionist Carmen Castaldi. A gesture that is not at all casual that responded to the permanent need for challenges in the career of a musician who could well have settled comfortably in the sound hardbop of its beginnings, marked by the tradition of great tenors such as Sonny Rollins o Ben Webster, but that he preferred to bet on the survey of renewed areas of expression. Gone are categorical evidences of his talent as From The Soul (1992), Universal Language (1993) or the orchestral, together with Gunther Schuller, Rush Hour (1994) while Lovano headed the route of other challenges, the penultimate of them this Trio Tapestry. He was not the only one from last year; also added in the mark of Manfred Eicher a couple of tier alliances: Roma, integrated in the quintet of the great Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava, Y Arctic Riff as the star guest of the trio of the Polish pianist Marcin Wasilewski.
Registered in November 2019 at the Stelio Molo RSI Auditorium in Lugano (Switzerland), Garden of Expression (ECM; 2021) now lays the second stone of the Trio Tapestry project, delving into that ethereal territory that not many would have associated with Joseph Salvatore Lovano a few decades ago. Dispelling the boundaries between composition and improvisation, the trio exposes their arguments, freed from the pulse of the double bass and interacting on open harmonic and melodic notions contributed by Crispell and a subtle polyrhythm by Castaldi in which the echoes of the maestro resonate. Paul Motian, in whose album Psalm (1982) Lovano debuted on the German label.
But if we had to define with a single word the content of this Garden of Expression, that would certainly be spirituality. The eight songs signed by the leader with titles such as Sacred Chant, Treasured Moments, Dream on That or that extensive and minimalist suite that closes it called Zen Like, the reflective tone of the photographs of Caterina Di Perri that are included in its insert or the title of the album itself, underline a meditative vocation where spaces play a role as peremptory as its quilted melodies. No, this is not a record that you can tiptoe through urgently. Quite the contrary, his extensive exhibitions, sometimes almost sensory, remind us the importance of abstracting and enjoying the moment, erected on the oiled bond of the trio while demanding attention from the listener. The reward is juicy and a penetrating lyricism ends up permeating during a journey that does not forget its place in the world: Lovano emphasizes it with an express dedication “to the spirits of humanity who have fallen victim to the COVID-19 virus that has tormented us up to the present day”. And a mandatory recommendation to finish: “Stay focused, strong and healthy.” Surely the music of Garden of Expression will help us to achieve it.
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