Grammy Award^®–winning titan of jazz saxophone Joe Lovano and virtuoso guitarist Julian Lage have enjoyed a long journey of mutual artistic admiration. They first met in 1999 at Yoshi’s in Oakland, where Joe was performing with McCoy Tyner. Then a child prodigy, Julian’s father brought him to the show and it was there he connected with Joe. They kept in touch through the years—even performing together at a private event—then reuniting at Berklee College of Music. “I’ve always found him a natural, beautiful, expressive musician with maturity beyond his years,” Joe says of Julian, “He is someone I always knew I would collaborate with at some point, and I’m so happy to have his contributions within the Paramount Quartet.”

Longtime Lovano collaborator Asante Santi Debriano, who first performed with Joe in the Archie Shepp Quartet in the 1980s, joins on bass. Drummer Will Calhoun (of Living Colour fame) called Joe to perform with him and Santi in a fundraiser last year for the Puerto Rican Relief Fund after the devastating hurricane. That explosive, creative set was the springboard leading to the idea of adding Julian and forming this new band, which debuted at the legendary Village Vanguard in February 2024.

Presented as part of Play Open
Throughout the Kennedy Center’s 2024–2025 Jazz Season, we’re showcasing partially improvisational concerts that embody the bold openness to express who we are—individually as soloists and collectively as essential members of a community. Join us for these freeform performances defined by unexpected chord progressions, spontaneous key changes, imaginative rhythms, and the exhilaration that only comes from working without constraint.