Joe was the featured artist at this year's Monterey Jazz Festival, appearing with John Scofield, John Patitucci, and US Five.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that:
Saxophonist Joe Lovano's "Us Five" quintet, which performed Sunday at Dizzy's Den, was an almost unbelievable rhythm orgy, with two drummers fueling the fun: Francisco Mela and Otis Brown III. It was wild, stimulating and extremely entertaining, with Lovano, like a bellows, sometimes roaring — his own one-man-band — through a saxophone (known as the aulochrome) with two wind columns and two bells. This was tribal music from an imaginary land where Ornette, Olatunji, Trane and Rahsaan are patron saints."
Joe's exciting new group, Us Five.
Photographer Ken Franckling caught Joe's guest appearance with pianist Michel Camilo at this year's Newport Jazz Festival.
"...this is an album in which the mix of styles and personalities and familiar repertoire creates a direct and honest sound world all its own. "Knight-Ridder