Saxophonist Joe Lovano is a musician whose career I have been following for quite some time. His sound is timeless and exciting gaining momentum and grace as the years elapse. His latest outing, Scandal sees him reuniting Sound Prints, the quintet he co-leads with trumpeter Dave Douglas and featuring the stellar rhythm section of Lawrence Fields (Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts) on piano, Linda May Han Oh (Pat Metheny, Nextbop’s #1 Favorite Jazz Album of 2017) on bass, and veteran Joey Baron on drums.
“We’re not playing by the traditional, or school-taught, rules of jazz,” Douglas explains. “The ‘Scandal’ in question refers to our questioning of everything about the assumptions made in improvisation. To plumb the depths of the unknown in this day and age has become all too rare and risky, and this band courts that sensibility.”
“Sound Prints is a free-flowing, joyous expression of music in the social environment we live in today,” adds Lovano. “We dare to improvise and create music within the music — in a democratic way each piece comes to life on its own.”
Scandal features nine original composition by both Lovano and Douglas as well as a pair of reimagined Wayne Shorter classics: “JuJu” (arranged by Lovano) and “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” (arranged by Douglas). Shorter was the guiding light behind the formation of Sound Prints, whose name is a play on his classic piece “Footprints.”
“From the beginning,” Lovano says, “Wayne Shorter has inspired us to be ourselves in the music and our lifetimes through whatever social struggles that might arise.”
You can watch the video for the cinematic ballad “Libra” below, the latest single by Sound Prints. Scandal is out now on Greenleaf music and can be purchased here.