★★★☆☆
Can a record label make that much difference? Over a remarkable 25 albums for Blue Note the American tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano became famous for his exuberant, free-wheeling playing and passion for vintage modern jazz. Generating as much warmth as heat, he is among the most exciting and beloved jazz heroes of his time. Yet on this disc, his first as leader for ECM, he is a different man.
Forming a trio with a pianist and drummer (no bass), Lovano feels his way through 11 tunes based on the 12-tone technique, where the pitches in the chromatic scale are ordered in rows rather than keys. It sounds heavy — and it is. Lovano even embraces the ECM tradition of exotic instruments by at one