Description
Saxophonist/clarinetist Joe Lovano teamed up with arranger/conductor/educator Gunther Schuller on their 1995 disc, Rush Hour. On this date, Lovano’s big and buoyant tenor sound fronts three trios and two Schuller-conducted large ensembles. The five-part title work is a third-stream, free-form shout-out to Lovano’s influences, ranging from Eric Dolphy to Ornette Coleman. “Moon Dreams,” “Move,” and “Boplicity,” are three movements from the immortal 1949-50 Miles Davis/Gil Evans Birth of the Cool sessions. Schuller, who played French horn on the original dates, illuminates those selections which his introductions, interludes, endings, and segues. The ebullient “Buckeyes” and “Blue Sketches” and the Ben Webster-dedicated blues “Big Ben,” which features Lovano on the aulochrome, a new double-soprano saxophone, are the stand-alone tracks. “We’re not just playing parts,” Lovano writes in his liner notes, “we are creating music within the orchestration, shaping new arrangements as we go along.” –Eugene Holley, Jr.
