Artist: Joe Locke

Date of Release: 16/06/2009

Catalogue no: SharpNine Records 1043-2

Label: SharpNine

Price: £11.99

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Track Listing

Joe Locke & David Hazeltine's reunion release "Mutual Admiration society 2" is now in stores. Marc Edelman of Sharp Nine Records managed to get Joe, David, Essiet Essiet (bass) and Billy Drummond (drums) back together in the studio, ten years after their first release. "Mutual Admiration Society 2" comes with more superb writing, arranging, soloing and group feel that made the original album one of the most admired CDs in the Sharp Nine catalogue.

Reviews

21/06/2009 Marc Myers

CD Discovery of the Week. Assemble a clutch of 51uCCAG1SsL._SL500_AA240_ seasoned pros and eight tasteful tunes, and you wind up with a CD bristling with smart twists and turns. On Mutual Admiration Society 2, vibraphonist Joe Locke and pianist David Hazeltine are joined by bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Billy Drummond, and the result is a solid reunion of sorts. The last time this ensemble recorded together was in 1998. Since then, of course, all of the artists here have flourished separately. On this album, Locke and Hazeltine evoke Blue Note's late 1960s pre-fusion acoustic period, and the modal mood works beautifully.

I especially enjoyed Hazeltine's One for Reedy Ree, written Joe-locke for the late jazz drummer Tony Reedus, and Locke's Convocation. There's an elevated intelligence and simmering seduction to the combination of Locke's [pictured] ice-cool vibes and Hazeltine's warmth on the keyboard. Both Locke and Hazeltine [pictured below] are pinpoint listeners, so they wind up stalking each other's ideas, producing a groove that gently embraces intensity without overdoing it.

The two standards also were smart choices: I can't recall the TERANGA-David-Hazeltine-Web last time I heard Jimmy Rowles' The Peacocks played so hauntingly. The other offbeat standard is Stevie Wonder's If It's Magic, which twists and turns throughout, lifting the tune out of its pop idiom.

Another great package from producer Marc Edelman. You'll find Mutual Admiration Society 2 (Sharp Nine) as CD and as a download at http://shop.joelocke.com.