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KENNY WERNER QUARTET featuring JOE LOVANO Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center Tickets: 877.311.SHOW (Toll-free) or purchase HERE
Master is a lofty term too loosely applied, particularly in music. That said, there is no better word to identify these particular artists. The amount of teaching each does in demand for them to share their expertise and knowledge is sufficient evidence. It is quite natural and also special that Kenny Werner and Joe Lovano have teamed so often to create exceptional music.
Kenny Werner in particular is as much a philosopher as a pianist, which is quite testament to his intellect. In his clinics, he emphasizes the freedom from conventional standards that are required to be creative and free – free from concern over making mistakes and conforming to musical notions of right or wrong. He calls this “effortless mastery,” and he has written and lectured on it extensively and compellingly. He was involved in music early, but did not focus on jazz until 18 years of age attending Manhattan School of Music as a concert piano major then transferring to Berklee. He also studied with the esteemed Madame Chaloff in Boston. Mr. Werner works primarily in his own trios, but also in quintets, big bands (The Mel Lewis Orchestra, now called the Vanguard Orchestra), and he had a 12-year duo collaboration with harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans. His playing is deep, expressive, melodically and harmonically advanced and his rhythmic conception is unique. He possesses awesome technique that he can unleash in dazzling runs and counter-melodies left hand against right hand. Far from an unpleasant noise, he has the ability to use dissonance judiciously as a welcome departure, never overwhelming the music.
Joe Lovano was born clearly into a musical environment in Cleveland. His father, Tony ”Big T” Lovano, was an established local jazz tenor saxophonist two of his three brothers played saxophone, the other, trumpet. Joe started on alto at age five and then tenor when he was big enough to handle the horn. He attended Berklee School of Music and played in the new instructor Gary Burton’s first student band. In 1998, Berklee presented him with a Distinguished Alumnus Award and an honorary doctorate. He would then be the recipient of The Gary Burton Chair for Jazz Performance in 2001. Joe Lovano worked his way through the trenches of the jazz scene for years, earning his chevrons with Dr. Lonnie Smith and Jack McDuff on the “chitlin circuit” followed by three years on the Woody Herman Orchestra, 11 years in the Mel Lewis Orchestra, and stints with Carla Bley, Gunther Schuller and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and a 20-year relationship with drummer Paul Motian. He has played quite literally with a who’s who of the jazz world. Since he became a bandleader in 1985, he has received enormous attention for his creativity and swing. Signed by Blue Note Records in 1991, Joe Lovano has played and recorded prodigiously and is recognized as one of the true giants of jazz.
### Funding for South Florida JAZZ is provided in part by a grant from the Broward County Board of County |
