Joe Locke Love is a Pendulum

Since signing with Motėma Music a couple years back, vibraphonist Joe Locke has been releasing some of the best and most diverse music in a career now entering its fourth decade. From the near-fusion energy of 2012's Signing—the long overdue studio followup to the Joe Locke / Geoffrey Keezer group's incendiary Live in Seattle (Origin, 2006)—to the expansive beauty of his 2013 quartet collaboration with Lincoln, Nebraska's Symphony Orchestra on Wish Upon a Star and, just a few months later the same year, an exploration of two musical forms that have been of seminal importance to the vibraphonist, Lay Down My Heart -Blues & Ballads Vol 1, Locke has been afforded virtual carte blanche to look forward and, perhaps for the first time in his career, plan out a series of recordings that demonstrate the depth and breadth of a vibraphonist who has, slowly but surely, emerged as one of the finest—if not the finest—of his generation.

Love Is A Pendulum is vibraphonist Joe Locke s fourth release on the Harlem-based Motema label. Joined by the members of his quartet - Robert Rodriguez (piano), Terreon Gully (drums) and Ricky Rodriguez (bass) - and special guests, Locke again shows himself to be one of the most forward thinkers in the music today, as well as a man with a bountiful capacity to swing. The centerpiece of the disc is a five-movement suite based on a poem, Love Is A Pendulum, by the writer and musician Barbara Sfraga. Alto and soprano saxophonist Rosario Giuliani joins the band on six tracks. Tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin, guitarist Paul Bollenback and steel pan virtuoso Victor Provost are heard on two tunes apiece. German singer Theo Bleckmann adds his distinctive ethereal voice to Love Is A Planchette .

Joe Locke is widely considered to be one of the major voices of his instrument. He has performed and recorded with a diverse range of notable musicians, including Grover Washington Jr, Kenny Barron, Eddie Henderson, Cecil Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Ron Carter, The Beastie Boys, the Münster Symphony Orchestra and the Lincoln, Nebraska Symphony.