Saturday, June 7, 2014

Joe Locke on "But Not For Me"

Here is a transcription of a solo by Joe Locke on the tune "But Not For Me" (Gershwin) with the reharmonized "Coltrane Chord Changes", which Coltrane originally recorded on the classic album "My Favorite Things".  The project and record date of "Five For John" was put together by renown italian pianist Dado Moroni, who assembled a great band to pay tribute to John Coltrane, with Joe Locke on vibraphone, Marco Panascia on bass, Alvin Queen on drums and guest Max Ionata on sax.  This is without a doubt Joe's territory and he is rightly backed up by a superb rhythm section, really embodying the spirit of Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones & Steve Davis.  Joe's playing on the whole record is truly stunning.  It's great to follow the transcription along with the audio and analyze the lines.  I may attach my own analysis in the future.

The album is available through iTunes, Amazon & Google Play as mp3 downloads.  It was produced and released by the italian label "Via Veneto Jazz", in case you'd like to do some research.
Gustavo.










Saturday, April 5, 2014

The Language of Joe Locke

This is an article recently written for PAS. It addresses a transcribed solo on the standard "It Could Happen To You" performed by Joe Locke on vibes and Ed Saindon on piano. 

The playing took place during a long weekend that Joe Locke, Ed Saindon and I spent together at Ed's house in December 2009.  Joe and Ed picked each other's brains, shared improvisational concepts and played hours worth of improvised music.  This was one of the many instances Joe got carried away while demonstrating an improvisational idea to us.  

The article (transcription & analysis) was published in two parts.  Here is a PDF containing Part One & Part Two, as well as my original transcription (reads better). Hope you find this as inspiring as I do. Gustavo

Click the link below to visualize/download the PDF:

It Could Happen To You (Transcription)