{"id":193,"date":"2005-09-30T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-30T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=193"},"modified":"2005-09-30T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-30T08:05:00","slug":"jackson_locked_in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/09\/jackson_locked_in\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackson Locked In"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things I like about Joe Locke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new CD, Rev-elation<\/em><\/a>, is that Bob Cranshaw plays acoustic bass on it. Sonny Rollins, for reasons unclear to me, prefers the electric instrument over what I irritate some of my bassist acquaintances by calling the real bass. Cranshaw uses the electric bass when he works with Rollins. He is one of the few players who comes close to persuading me that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hearing the real thing when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing electric. Nonetheless, as well as he works that deception with Rollins, I get full satisfaction from his sound, attack and feeling when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the good old standup, wooden, contrabass. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more profundo. Another thing: On Locke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album, Mike LeDonne plays the Fender-Rhodes electric piano sparingly; a good idea. For the most part, however, he plays a Steinway grand. Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not positive that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Steinway, but his playing is grand. (This is called backing into a review).
\nAs far as I know, Mickey Roker has never used electric drums. Roker, LeDonne and Cranshaw were the rhythm section who supported the sublime vibraharpist Milt Jackson for much of the last part of his life. A tighter, more attuned rhythm section is hard to imagine. Locke has no choice but to play electric vibes. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only kind the Ross, Deagan and Musser companies make. Otherwise, the instrument wouldn’t vibrate. It would be a marimba. Locke worships Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsomething he has in common with all the vibraharpists who came after The Reverend, or Rev. Those were Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nicknames in addition to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bags.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nIn Rev-elation<\/em> (get it?), the quartet treats an audience at Ronnie Scott\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s club in London to the kind of set Jackson often played there. It is loaded with blues, a form at which Jackson excelled as Jack Nicklaus excelled at golf, although Jackson dominated his field much longer. Among other blues, Locke and his colleagues play an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Opus de Funk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that is among the most exciting versions of that imperishible Horace Silver tune. They also do Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Prophet Speaks\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to a turn, and a sinuous new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I Got Rhythm\u00e2\u20ac\u009d derivative of Locke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Big Town.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the ballad department, Locke approaches Jackson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tenderness and depth on Johnny Mandel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Close Enough for Love.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nI have thought for some years that Locke was one of the most impressive post-Jackson vibes artist to emerge since Gary Burton. Unless you know the rules, it is impossible to successfully break them, as Locke comes close to doing with his Four Walls of Freedom<\/a> band, pushing the modern mainstream bop tradition toward the experimental edges of jazz without losing its essence. In this album, he shows why he can do that. He knows the rules. He lives in the heart of the tradition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I like about Joe Locke\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new CD, Rev-elation, is that Bob Cranshaw plays acoustic bass on it. Sonny Rollins, for reasons unclear to me, prefers the electric instrument over what I irritate some of my bassist acquaintances by calling the real bass. Cranshaw uses the electric bass when he works with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}