Joe Lovano's US 5

Thu. - Fri., April 3-4, 8 and 10 p.m., $30, Chris' Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.

by Shaun Brady

jazz

Ayano Hisa (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Nobody would ever refer to Joe Lovano as an experimental musician. But that points out a tragic shortfall in the use of that term, not in the adventurous spirit of the stalwart tenorman. "Experimental" has become synonymous with extremes, but for every world-reshaping theorist there's plenty of guys in white lab coats advancing knowledge in increments, using variations on tried and true formulas. Lovano, while firmly situated in the mainstream jazz tradition, not only has one of the most expansive vocabularies of any soloist on his instrument, but also a voracious appetite for new challenges. Like Alfred Hitchcock, who found in every one of his crowd-pleasing genre entertainments a way to refine his technique and tackle narrative in new ways, Lovano is forever subtly reformulating the environment around his trademark husky tenor. His new group, US 5, utilizes two drummers, the better to scaffold that muscular sound.

Thu. - Fri., April 3-4, 8 and 10 p.m., $30, Chris' Jazz Cafe, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.