Joe Lovano – Paramount Quartet

Joe Lovano, Julian Lage, Asante Santi Debriano & Will Calhoun's Paramount Quartet captures a new ECM band at its first recorded peak. Taped in southern France in February 2025 and produced by Manfred Eicher, it brings together four generations of improvisers: Lovano on tenor and tarogato, Julian Lage on guitar, Santi Debriano on bass and Will Calhoun on drums. The quartet grew out of Lovano's meeting with Debriano and Calhoun at a 2023 Puerto Rican hurricane-relief fundraiser, then expanded with Lage, whose connection with Lovano goes back to his Berklee years.

The music makes that history feel lived-in rather than ceremonial. Alongside Lovano originals, the group reshapes Charlie Haden's First Song and Wayne Shorter's Billie Holiday tribute Lady Day, balancing lyricism with a more open, exploratory edge. The source material points to a broad range inside the set: the meditative pull of First Song, the groove of Fanfare for Unity, and the longer-form design of The Great Outdoors, where written passages open into freer improvisation.

What makes Paramount Quartet especially appealing is how distinct each player sounds without turning the session into a showcase. Lovano moves between horns to shift the colour from piece to piece, Lage's first ECM appearance adds agile, harmonically rich guitar lines, and the rhythm team can be chamber-like or driving as the music demands. It feels like a first chapter with real momentum rather than a one-off meeting.

Reviews

• And Lovano’s Paramount Quartet glows with all the saxophone’s pliable eloquence in a master’s hands - The Guardian