Love Is A Pendulum (Motéma)
Joe Locke
Released May 26, 2015
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nBc8PWF9Tgqr51XwC7GMkOZDhO4sfRJcc
Spotify:
About:
Love Is A Pendulum, considered by the artist as his greatest recording to date, is bold and refreshing in its musical audacity. One of a handful of brilliant jazz musicians to have mastered the vibraphone, Locke flies here from heartbreaking lyrical delicacy to full blown hard-swinging ensemble work, using his instrument as an extension of his deep compositional skill and formidable technical prowess. Sit back and let Locke and his brilliant crew take you on a heartfelt and thrilling musical joyride.
Track Listing:
1. Variation On Wisdom (Joe Locke) 2:09
2. Love Is The Tide (Joe Locke) 11:37
3. Love Is A Planchette (Joe Locke) 7:55
4. Love Is A Pendulum (Joe Locke) 8:45
5. Love Is Letting Go (Joe Locke) 4:52
6. Love Is Perpetual Motion (Joe Locke) 10:38
7. For Jessie Mountain (Joe Locke) 5:45
8. Last Ditch Wisdom (Joe Locke) 6:44
9. Embrace (Joe Locke) 7:45
Personnel:
Joe Locke: vibraphone
Robert Rodriguez: piano
Terreon Gully: drums
Ricardo Rodriguez: acoustic and electric bass
Special guests
Paul Bollenback: guitar (1, 7)
Rosario Giuliani: alto (2, 5, 8) and soprano saxophones (4)
Theo Bleckmann: vocals (3)
Donny McCaslin: tenor saxophone (6, 7)
Victor Provost: steel pan (6, 9)
Produced by Joe Locke and Terreon Gully
Executive Producer: Jana Herzen
Recording and Mixing: Katherine Miller
Assistante Engineer: Tyler Hartman
Mastering: Alan Silverman
Photography by Amanda Stockwell
Graphic Design by Nadja von Massow
Review:
Inspired by Barbara Sfraga’s poem “Love Is A Pendulum,” vibraphonist Joe Locke’s latest album is perhaps his finest, featuring an extremely sympatico quartet that rolls his dexterous music into third and fourth gears. Co-produced by drummer Terreon Gully, Love Is A Pendulum is a thematic work that embraces a cerebral vision and empowers it song after song. Far from a common translation, Love Is A Pendulum honors the listener’s intelligence in artfully realized song-craft. “Love Is The Tide” begins in the sky, the quartet’s gritty Afro-Cuban and post-bop flights propelled by Gully’s hard-tack groove and Donny McCaslin’s throaty tenor. Radiohead meets Tuvan throat singing in the intro of “Love Is A Planchette,” a gentle number with a lovely solo from Locke. The title track reintroduces a sense of tension in its downward spiraling melody, broadened by circuitous funk and airy rubato solo sections. Another exquisite Locke solo introduces “Love Is Letting Go,” its ringing vibraphone notes enveloping the listener in a crystalline shimmer. And “Love Is Perpetual Motion,” a galvanic vehicle for a dark melody, encourages full burn improvisations from the quartet. Gifted pianist Robert Rodriguez adopts a steel drum tone for closer “Embrace,” a striking ballad that avoids cloying sentimentality.
Ken Micallef (DownBeat)
