Friendly Fire

Lovano and Osby made some excellent personnel and program choices. The teaming of Osby-affiliated pianist Jason Moran and Lovano’s current trio mates-bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Idris Muhammad-produces a constantly shifting chemistry of contrast and confluence. Brown and Muhammad are always in sync with Moran’s ability to quickly and effortlessly move between the pocket and the perimeter of a composition’s structure, and Moran proves to have a sixth sense about when and how to pull back just a little to allow Brown’s well-honed sense of line and the propulsiveness of Muhammad’s smallest details to come to the foreground.

In Lion’s day, this trio would have been subsequently booked into Van Gelder’s ASAP, with or without a front line. The formula of the co-leaders each contributing a few tunes and rounding out the program with some chestnuts is rarely as well executed as it is here…