A Pair of Contrasting Streams, Joining Together to Flow Toward Wayne Shorter - The New York Times

By Nate Chinen

The defining trait of Sound Prints, a newish quintet making its New York debut this week 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. In this case the sparring partners are the saxophonist Joe Lovano and the trumpeter Dave Douglas, who share leadership of the band and compose all of its music. Their rapport seemed all but inexhaustible during Thursday night’s powder-keg first set.

Mr. Lovano and Mr. Douglas are two of the leading figures in jazz, with separate histories and only a few points of past intersection. One of these was a brief overlap in the SFJazz Collective, in 2008, when that organization was focused on the repertory of Wayne Shorter. Given that Mr. Shorter is a living totem for both of these bandleaders, it made sense that they would rekindle that tribute, on their own time and in their own fashion.

Read the rest here.