Joe Locke was invited to join
Milt Jackson's former rhythm section (pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist
Bob Cranshaw, and drummer
Mickey Roker) for an engagement at Smoke in New York City that served as a tribute to the late vibraphonist. They gelled as a group and promptly booked a week at Ronnie Scott's in London, where this CD was recorded, primarily utilizing repertoire drawn from the rhythm section's days backing
Jackson.
Locke's blues-inflected solo in the opener, "The Prophet Speaks," and his playfulness in "Opus de Funk" are complemented by LeDonne's light touch on electric piano. Two of the charts come from
Jackson's partnership with the late
Ray Brown.
Brown's soulful scoring of
Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" adds a tense vamp at the end of each chorus, while
Locke and LeDonne (back on grand piano) dig into
Brown's hard bop vehicle "Used to Be Jackson." In addition to enjoyable treatments of a pair of standards, LeDonne contributed the soulful "Rev-elation" and
Locke the sauntering "Big Town."
Cranshaw and
Roker provide terrific support throughout the disc. This intimate live recording gives the listener a front row table at this London nightclub. ~ Ken Dryden