Joe Lovano is part of a select group of established musicians who have been around for so long, achieved so much, and have such an instantly recognizable sound, that a new release is more or less guaranteed to be good. And so it is with Classic! Live at Newport, another welcome offering from the Lovano quartet featuring the late, great Hank Jones. He passed away in 2010, five years after this album was recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival, but what we're left with is a collaboration between Jones and Lovano that gave us the Blue Note albums I'm All for You -- the title track of which finds its way into this live set -- and the superb Joyous Encounter, as well as the duo record Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Classic! follows the May 2005 recording of Joyous Encounter, and the quartet had been busy touring Europe with journeyman drummer Lewis Nash replacing Paul Motian. Nash colors the quartet in a different way than Motian, but it's not unwelcome. Motian had an unparalleled ability to see the drum kit's role in the small ensemble -- it could almost be described as impressionistic -- whereas Lewis Nash is more at home swinging hard. That's not to say Classic! is missing something -- the other bandmembers thrive just as happily on hard-grooving time players.

1		Big Ben
2		Bird's Eye View
3		Don't Ever Leave Me
4		I'm All for You
5		Kids Are Pretty People
6		Six and Four

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