The Scofield-Lovano Quartet got right down to business at Xerox Auditorium Friday night. The two stars —
guitarist John Scofield and saxophonist Joe Lovano —
walked onto the stage, along with the excellent rhythm section of Ben Street (bass)
and Bill Stewart (drums), and launched into Lovano’s
“Symbolism.” Scofield played gorgeously, even slipping into some Wes
Montgomery-style octaves, while Lovano let loose
torrents of notes from his tenor saxophone.

Throughout the set, Scofield and Lovano
would begin and end tunes with harmonized heads, played in the manner of a sax
and trumpet horn section. Every tune, including Scofield’s “Museum” and “Slinky,”
and Miles Davis’s “Budo,” was filled with great
melodic ideas that would hang in the air during improvisations by the two
leaders.

Lovano and Scofield played off of one
another nicely, each bringing decades of musical personality to the stage. The
set was tight, allowing for only one solo each for Street and Stewart, but both
were excellent throughout.

After playing the first composition at the Lutheran Church,
singer and saxophonist Sissel Vera Pettersen introduced the members of Mikkel Ploug’s Equilibrium, and pointed out that she is
from Norway, Ploug is from Denmark, and clarinetist
Joachim Badenhorst is from Belgium. But the audience
already knew that the music was from another planet.

Ploug anchored the group with his
relatively straight electric guitar playing. He was flanked by Badenhorst on clarinet and bass clarinet and Pettersen on voice, soprano sax, and electronics. I use the
term “on voice” because for most of the set she used no words; her voice was
her instrument. She moved her head from side to side and back to front, using
the microphone like a Theremin.

The ethereal mixture of her voice and Badenhorst’s
clarinets was perfect for the beautiful church environment, but if you closed
your eyes, you could be floating through distant galaxies. A virtuoso on
clarinets, Badenhorst’s vocabulary included slap
tonguing that made it sound like he was playing two notes at once. Pettersen and Ploug used
electronics occasionally to deepen the lush textures and adventurous harmonies.

Popular piano teacher and local jazz hero Paul Hofmann couldn’t help but teach a bit of jazz history during his Hatch Hall
performance. For instance, the audience learned that Miles Davis led
generations of musicians astray with his version of Thelonious Monk’s “Well,
You Needn’t.” Hofmann set the record straight with his spirited rendition, true
to Monk’s original arrangement.

Hofmann’s performance was dedicated to the tunes of great
pianists who were also great composers. He played tunes by Monk, Bud Powell,
Duke Ellington, and others, all in his sparkling style, with an Art Tatum-like
arpeggio thrown in once in a while for good measure. Perhaps the most unusual
aspect of Hofmann’s style was the first thing he did when he arrived on stage.
He took off his shoes, preferring to hit the petals with his feet in socks.

Saturday night, I’ll start with Makoto Ozone and Tommy Smith in
Kilbourn Hall. Then I’ll head over to Hatch Hall for Jon Ballantyne, and my last stop will be Christ Church to catch the Phil Robson
Trio.

This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2016.