Montreal Gazette - Joe Lovano's Bird Songs will have jazz fans a-twitter

Joe Lovano's new album, Bird Songs, an inspired tribute to bebop king Charlie "Bird" Parker, amply demonstrates why he's considered the dominant saxophonist in jazz over the past 20 years or so, and one of the music's most fertile minds. He topped the latest Downbeat Critics Poll in the artist, group (Us Five) and tenor saxophone categories, all of which he's won before.

His young group's first album, Folk Art, won many album-of-the-year polls. Lovano also plays alto and soprano sax, clarinets, flutes and drums (which he started out on as a kid). No other jazzman has played in such a wide variety of formats, which is why his gig Saturday with McGill's Jazz Orchestra and its Chamber Jazz Ensemble is a much anticipated event on the local jazz scene.