New York Times
US Five at the Vanguard

"...Us Five’s most salient characteristic is the twin-engine churn of Mr. Mela and Mr. Brown, who share an ethos of alert, dynamic drumming but feel the beat in subtly different ways. In the set as on the album, their contrast was clearest during “Powerhouse,” a punchy post-bop tune with Coltrane-like harmonic turns. Mr. Lovano ranged deftly through his solo with one drummer at a time, back and forth across the stage, so that the performance began to feel like a tennis match. Mr. Brown’s playing had more linear drive; Mr. Mela’s suggested a swarm. Both players swung hard, with a dry, brittle tone, jackhammering at cymbals that rang out fast in the room.

For most of the set the division of labor was murkier, as the drummers played in a shifting tandem, shadowing each other’s moves and plowing through the groundwork laid by Ms. Spaulding and Mr. Weidman. The effect of multiple drummers has always been to thicken and soften rhythm, blur the edges a bit. Mr. Lovano, a master of the blurred edge, seemed to savor that touch of ambiguity. And he stamped a tune called “Dibango” with his own double exposure, playing the aulochrome, an instrument that resembles two soprano saxophones fused together at the head. His sound, especially as the band shifted from fractured funk into a walking blues, suggested an imprecise overdub, with two voices bleating not quite identical lines..."

Nate Chinen