Search - Bob Sneider, Joe Locke :: Fallen Angel

Perhaps Joe Locke's finest achievement

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 04/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"That would be saying a lot.



His own band, 4 Walls of Freedom, with two outstanding releases (an eponymous disc and Dear Life), his collaborations with Frank Kimbrough, perhaps the finest jazz pianist alive (The Willow and Saturn's Child), plus his work with Tim Garland and Geoff Keezer (Storms and Nocturnes), establish him as among the premier vibests alive.



Fallen Angel, however, is something special. Every once in a while a kind of off-the-wall jazz concept strikes pay dirt. That's the case here, methinks. The perhaps cliched idea of creating a jazz disc resonating with film noir sensibilities is here parlayed, big time, into an entirely attractive and infinitely engaging musical encounter. This is territory effectively evoked by Michael Blake at least twice (Drift and Elevated), and perhaps three times if you include Blake Tartare, but never quite as brilliantly as here.



Why? Vibest Joe Locke seems to have this uncanny ability to absolutely "lock" into whatever "vibe" is going down. Here the dusky, tawdry, East LA 40s sensibility is magnificently nailed. Think Chinatown on steroids. And, one must admit, it's a feeling of uncommon attractiveness: world-weariness to the max; seedy, over-the-hill-but-still-appealing denizens--Bogey and Bacall--eking out a cheap existence against a cityscape of huge evocativeness. All this Locke and band blithely, effortlessly, nail.



The vibes, that ungainly instrument with the potentially annoying reverb thing happening, seems the perfect instrument to evoke this smart seediness. Combine that with sleepy-samba guitar by co-leader Bob Sneider, world-weary, Miles-influenced trumpet, courtesy of brother John Sneider, Grant Stewart conjuring late nights at third-hand strip joints, and brilliant stylings by the deep-pocket rhythm section of Phil Flanigan (bass) and Mike Melito (drums), and you have some mega-noir music reeking of lost dreams and, indeed, fallen angels almost beyond comprehension.



Trust me. It's all magnificently pulled off. Absolutely not to be missed."