Joe Locke // Love is a Pendulum

Joe Locke

Love is a Pendulum

Motema

4/5 stars

Superb vibraphonist Joe Locke and his quartet, plus five impressive guest soloists, take on the challenging task of expressing love's multitudinous emotions. The result is perhaps the finest vibes album since the halcyon days of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Locke, who composed all nine songs as a suite inspired by a poem from multi-dimensional artist Barbara Sfraga, produces an almost limitless range of moods in his often stunning compositions that blend jazz and orchestral sounds. Of the nine tunes, some offer soft, sweet, romantic melodies, others hard-swinging modern jazz. Sometimes a wide variety of feelings occurs on just one song, which opens with crashing cymbals and rock-ish rhythm, followed by a gentle ballad from Locke, and concludes with a surprising, exhilarating piano solo. With his tremendous melodic sense and expansive tonal and rhythmic range, Locke has created a special album that may push him to the forefront of today's vibraphonists. – Bob Protzman