Joe Lovano has been one of the most distinguished players on the international jazz scene for decades.
He is considered one of today’s top tenor saxophone specialists, but he also plays other types of saxophones, as well as clarinet, flute and drums.
With a win at the Grammy Awards, the Oscars from music, and 14 other nominations behind him, he has won countless times in Down Beat Magazine’s critics’ and readers’ polls as tenor saxophonist, musician of the year, album of the year. He has also received numerous awards from Jazz Times and the Jazz Journalists Association. The Italian monthly magazine Musica Jazz awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award as part of the Top Jazz 2022 referendum.
Full name Joseph Salvatore Lovano, born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 29, 1952, to a family of Sicilian descent (his grandparents, both paternal and maternal, emigrated to the United States from the province of Messina), was introduced to music and jazz in particular through his father Tony “Big T” Lovano, who taught him the first rudiments of the saxophone. Later, after graduating from Euclid High School in 1971, he enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton, and where he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1998.
His first significant professional engagements date from the 1970s, when he began playing in the groups of organists Jack McDuff and Lonnie Smith and, later, in the orchestras of Woody Herman and drummer Mel Lewis. In the 1980s his saxophone style, initially influenced by that of John Coltrane, is at the center of a perceptible maturation, in parallel with his militancy in drummer Paul Motian’s quintet and trio, as well as with his first recordings in the guise of leader (the first album under his own name,
Notable albums recorded for Blue Note include From the Soul (with Michel Petrucciani on piano), Rush Hour, Celebrating Sinatra, a tribute to The Voice, Viva Caruso, a tribute to the art of Enrico Caruso, and 52nd Street Themes , which won him a Grammy Award for Best “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” in 2001.
In 2018 Joe Lovano began recording regularly for ECM, another highly prestigious record label. For the German label he has recorded albums with his trio Tapestry, formed with pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi, with the Polish Marcin Wasilewski Trio, with Enrico Rava and with Danish guitarist Jakob Bro. He also recently formed a quintet with trumpeter Dave Douglas, called Sound Prints, with whom he has recorded three records. In addition, composer Mark Anthony Turnage wrote for Joe Lovano a Concerto for Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra entitled “A Man Descending,” which has been performed worldwide.
As a testament to his constant artistic vitality, his desire to measure himself against different contexts, Joe Lovano formed a brand new lineup in 2024, the Paramount Quartet, including guitarist Julian Lage, one of the new names in jazz guitar, double bassist Santi Debriano and drummer Will Calhoun, former member of Living Colour.
Also very active on the music teaching front, Joe Lovano has taught at Berklee College of Music and is a frequent guest lecturer at New York University’s Jazz Program, Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, as well as invited by universities around the world. Since 2009 he has been a faculty member of the Global Jazz Institute at Berklee directed by Danilo Pérez.
Joe Lovano has been a guest of Bergamo Jazz several times: in 1991, as a member of John Scofield’s quartet; in 1994 with his own quartet; in 1995 with Paul Motian’s “Broadway Music” project; in 1998 as a trio with Bill Frisell and Paul Motian; in 2001 as a special guest of Japanese pianist Yosuke Yamashita’s trio; and in 2016 with his Classic Quartet.
In 2024, in his first year as artistic director of Bergamo Jazz, Joe Lovano surprisingly joined John Scofield’s group and the Emanuele Cisi/Salvatore Bonafede duo, offering unexpected performances that were much appreciated by the audience.
