Sound Prints

Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas salute sax great Wayne Shorter

Justin Saglio For The Boston Globe

Justin Saglio For The Boston Globe

By Jon Garelick

Sound Prints is saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas’s Wayne Shorter project, but it’s not exactly a tribute “covers” band. In fact, in the first of two sets that the band played at Scullers on Thursday night, there was only one tune by the iconic saxophonist and composer — and that was a relatively new one, written specifically for this band. So the show might have been “for Wayne and about Wayne,” as Lovano said regarding one tune, but it was really about making new music, and the 80-minute set crackled with the joy of spontaneous creation.

Read the rest at The Boston Globe.

4-star DownBeat HotBox review of Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Sound Prints!

The marvelous, mercurial quintet…is one of the foremost ensembles in jazz. . .the band specializes in long-form improvisation with recurring motifs and unpredictable twists and turns. Sound Prints also burns hot, swings hard and showcases Lovano’s and Douglas’ unmistakable personalities.
— Paul de Barros

Jazz Times: Sound Prints captures Wayne Shorter's "audacity and innovation"

Sound Prints is less about Shorter’s individual style than his audacity and innovation, and on those fronts Live triumphs. . .the band makes Shorter’s ideas wholly their own, adds its own considerable ideas on top, and does so with relish. - Michael J. West, JazzTimes

Sound Prints will release their debut recording Live at Monterey Jazz Festival on April 7. Preorder the album now at iTunes and get a free track.

Blue Note Records announces Sound Prints release date!

JOE LOVANO & DAVE DOUGLAS ANNOUNCE APRIL 7 RELEASE DATE FOR THE DEBUT RECORDING FROM THEIR CO-LED QUINTET SOUND PRINTS

LIVE AT MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL FEATURES TWO NEW COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN BY THE BAND’S PRIMARY INSPIRATION WAYNE SHORTER

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."

In the summer of 2011 Sound Prints opened for Shorter's Quartet on a European tour. They weren't performing any of his tunes yet but time spent with the legend and his band made a big impact on the group. When Sound Prints appeared on the bill with Shorter at New York's Town Hall in June 2013 he presented them with the new scores of "Destination Unknown" and "To Sail Beyond The Sunset," two pieces commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival. "The music came handwritten - very detailed, very precise," says Douglas.

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 Arts Desk reviews Sound Prints at the EFG London Jazz Festival

Charles Lloyd / Joe Lovano and Dave Douglas, Barbican

A jazz festival finale of rare brilliance

by Thomas Rees

It’s not easy to write about a gig when you’re still shaking with adrenaline, still less so when that gig is the grand finale of the 2014 EFG London Jazz Festival, the climax to a giddy ten days of world-class contemporary music. But it’s a cross I’ll have to bear, because last night’s performance from legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd and jazz giants tenorist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas demands it.

Read the rest at theartsdesk.com.