Saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas have announced an April 7 release date for Live at Monterey Jazz Festival, the debut recording from their co-led quintet Sound Prints featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Joey Baron. The album features the debut of two new compositions written for the band by the band’s primary inspiration: Wayne Shorter. Sound Prints will be performing at Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City on May 15 & 16 in The Appel Room as part of their Wayne Shorter Festival. Further tour dates will be announced shortly.
For almost twenty years, Lovano and Douglas have been prime moving forces in the jazz scene, their paths crossing often on stage and occasionally on record. Douglas appears on Lovano's 2001 Blue Note album Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination Edition Two and they overlapped as members of the SFJAZZ Collective for three seasons during which the band performed the repertoire of Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, and their mutual touchstone: saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter.
Sound Prints takes their inspiration from the music of Shorter – the band's name is a nod to his classic "Footprints" – however the quintet’s focus is on new original compositions by Lovano and Douglas, as well as new Shorter compositions in direct collaboration with the composer himself. The band is fueled by a desire to push the boundaries of their music as far as they can stretch, similar to the expansive role Shorter has played in jazz since his debut with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1959.
In the album’s liner notes Shorter exclaims: “Onward! Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Lawrence Fields, Linda Oh and Joey Baron! It’s not often when a combination of musicians such as the aforementioned elect to immerse themselves in an explorative adventure without hesitation or reservation. May they continue forging ahead on the trail less trodden. Onward!”
"The defining trait of Sound Prints," wrote Nate Chinen in The New York Times in a 2012 review of their engagement at the Village Vanguard, "is the tangled crosstalk of its front line: an urbane, on-the-fly counterpoint brimming with crooked urgency, like a choice bit of dialogue in a David Mamet play.”
Sound Prints' debut album was recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival on September 21, 2013. Lovano and Douglas contributed two songs apiece to the set and the Shorter compositions were given their public debut that day. "The recordings are the very first performances of the newly commissioned tunes," said Douglas. "We all were at a heightened state of paying attention. Shorter took a lot of risks exploring elements of change. It was such a high to play it for him.” “The music moves from today into tomorrow," adds Lovano. "Wayne told us the melody was just a suggestion – tell your own story with it."
The tracklisting for Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints Live at Monterey Jazz Festival is as follows:
1. Sound Prints (Joe Lovano)
2. Sprints (Dave Douglas)
3. Destination Unknown (Wayne Shorter)
4. To Sail Beyond The Sunset (Shorter)
5. Weatherman (Lovano)
6. Power Ranger (Douglas)
Recorded At – Monterey Jazz Festival
Mixed At – Sear Sound
Mastered At – Battery Mastering Studios
A&R – Don Was
A&R [A&R Administration] – Steve Cook (12)
Art Direction, Design – Hayden Miller
Bass – Linda Oh
Drums – Joey Baron
Engineer [Assistant Engineer (Recording)] – Amanda Davis (2), Eli Robbins, Michael Orsow, Rob MacKinnon
Engineer [Assistant Mix Engineer] – Ted Tuthill
Engineer [Engineered By (Recording)] – Ron Davis (2)
Liner Notes – Dave*, Joe*, Wayne Shorter
Mastered By – Mark Wilder
Mixed By – James Farber
Photography By [Cover Photo By, Individual Photos By] – Craig Lovell
Photography By [Group Photo By] – Cole Thompson
Piano – Lawrence Fields
Producer – Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano
Recorded By – Monterey Jazz Festival Audio Recording Crew
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Lovano
Trumpet – Dave Douglas
Recorded live at Monterey Jazz Festival on September 21, 2013
Mixed at Sear Sound, New York, NY on December 18, 2013
Mastered at Battery Studios, New York, NY
VÍCTOR
