Joe Lovano Quotes

I’m trying to be expressive on my instrument and conduct as I’m improvising. So I’m conducting with the melodies and the rhythms that I play. And so it’s a very organic way. It’s a lot like Charles Mingus played, cuing people in from what you play and how you play it rather than standing in front of a band, conducting and pointing.
Joe Lovano

The first time I heard the Modern Jazz Quartet I was in high school, and they played on a concert with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet. And it was one of the first formal concerts I had been to at Severance Hall in Cleveland, the "Carnegie Hall" of Cleveland and the home of the Cleveland Orchestra. It made a deep impression on me how beautiful this music was and how elegant this music was presented with the quartet, including Milt Jackson and John Lewis. Their presentation really lives on in my history and inspiration. I was a kid then and now those impressions are still really strong with me, especially when I am playing with the great Hank Jones, one of great jazz pianists of all time in modern jazz. It really touches on those feelings. Hank is from that era, the elegance and presentation.
Joe Lovano