Paramount Quartet by Joe Lovano/Julian Lage/Asante Santi Debriano/Will Calhoun
Release date: May 29, 2026Label: ECM Records
Cleveland‑born multi‑instrumentalist Joe Lovano has spent five decades shaping the language of modern jazz, first as a sideman in the 1970s with Woody Herman and John Scofield, then as a defining voice on Blue Note, where he released 25 albums that mapped out entire constellations of sound. His move to ECM in 2019 opened a new chapter: quieter, deeper, more spacious. And now, in 2026, Lovano steps forward with a new ensemble, guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Asante Santi Debriano, and Living Colour’s rhythmic force Will Calhoun, united under the luminous banner of Paramount Quartet.
The album’s spark came in 2023, when Lovano crossed paths with Asante and Will during a Puerto Rico hurricane‑relief fundraiser. Something clicked, not just musically, but spiritually. They knew the circle wouldn’t be complete without Julian, whose guitar voice Lovano had admired since Julian’s Berklee days twenty years earlier. Once the four aligned, the sound that emerged felt like a rediscovered photograph from the late ’50s and early ’60s, the era of Impulse! and Blue Note, yet somehow untouched by time, glowing with new breath.
The opening track, Charlie Haden’s ‘First Song’, unfolds like a slow sunrise. Lage’s guitar drifts in soft arcs, tender and searching, as if tracing the outline of a quiet September morning in Central Park. The music doesn’t just play, it exhales, guiding the listener into a meditative stillness.
‘Amsterdam’ spirals upward like a staircase in an old European building, each step shifting tempo, each landing revealing a new view. Debriano and Calhoun weave a rhythmic conversation beneath it, until Lage enters with McLaughlin‑like sparks that illuminate the entire structure. Then comes ‘The Call’, where Lovano’s saxophone becomes a beacon in the Cleveland night, a lone voice echoing across empty streets, urging the city toward rest and renewal.
Calhoun ignites ‘Fanfare for Unity’ with shifting signatures and volcanic energy. It’s not a return to his Living Colour firestorm, it’s something more ancestral, carrying the lineage of Billy Cobham, Mitch Mitchell, and Elvin Jones. His drumming doesn’t just drive the quartet; it summons them.
Lage steps into the moonlight on ‘Lady Day’, a ballad that feels like a figure emerging from the forest, mysterious, elegant, unhurried. Calhoun’s brushes whisper like wind through leaves, while Lovano’s smoky phrasing turns the track into a late‑night confession. From there, the album wanders into the open air of ‘The Great Outdoors’, where the quartet breathes as one organism.
The closing track, ‘Congregation’, is a celebration, conga‑infused bebop slipping into a funk‑soaked strut. It carries the earthy swagger of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters era, yet feels rooted in the blues, walking confidently toward the light at the end of the tunnel.
What stands out most is the quartet’s chemistry, effortless, intuitive, alive. As someone stepping into Lovano’s world for the first time, Paramount Quartet feels like a revelation. Whether or not it becomes the album of the year, it’s already one of ECM’s most compelling offerings of 2026, and a beautiful entry point for anyone discovering Lovano’s artistry.
