Glasgow Jazz Festival
Joe Locke Quartet
Old Fruitmarket
Rob Adams
five stars
DURING Glasgow Jazz Festival’s early years vibraphonist Joe Locke became a familiar visitor. So having him as guest on the festival’s thirtieth instalment for what, in most years, has been the final concert slot was a good idea in theory. It became an even better idea in practice within moments of Locke’s quartet arriving onstage.
The New Yorker has never been exactly shy and retiring but the flamboyant, almost balletic gracefulness with which his four mallets whiz through the air is matched by a soulfulness in his phrasing as well as a supernatural fluency and unerring musicality. If jazz is – on one level – the art of renewal, then Locke is its master. His version of Laura took a standard that’s been recorded hundreds of times and made it at once warmly familiar and daringly contemporary.
His creativity was mirrored and supported by a superb rhythm section in which Sardinian pianist Alessandro di Liberto’s fingers appeared to be an extension of Locke’s mallet-bearing hands, such is the pair’s compatibility, and bassist Darryl Hall and drummer Alyn Cosker swung and rocked in tandem with muscle and subtlety in equal proportion.
A vibes-piano duet dedicated to Di Liberto’s mother was a tender marvel and if Locke’s instrument often appeared to be singing with his very personalised use of vibrato, it was doing so with wit and lightning speed of thought as he slipped Freedom Jazz Dance’s tricky melody into his breezy extemporisation on an ultra-groovy take on Sonny Rollins’ No Mo’.
Young quartet Square One’s excellent opening set, complete with guitarist Joe Williamson’s specially commissioned In Motion, enhanced the festival’s 30 under 30 initiative with both thoughtful and invigorating playing.
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