Rev.elation - The Music of Milt Jackson featuring Joe Locke, Mike LeDonne, Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker

27th Detroit International Jazz Festival
All Bout Jazz, by C. Andrew Hovan (October 10, 2006)

As the festival wrapped up on Labor Day Monday, more great music was in the offing. Vibist Joe Locke would make a return appearance to the fest with a tribute to Milt Jackson, leading the group heard on his recent Sharp Nine release Rev-elation. Pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Mickey Roker locked in tight for one of the best sets of the festival. Locke, who would work up quite a sweat, was a man in constant motion. “Off Minor,” “Revelation,” and “Opus De Funk” contained ample passages of solo brilliance from Locke and LeDonne. Ballad features like “Young and Foolish” and “Close Enough For Love” also showed Locke to be a mature interpreter whose technical brilliance is balanced with an equally adept feeling of emotional depth.

All Bout Jazz, by Russ Musto (October 14, 2006)

The Milt Jackson Tribute Band featuring vibist Joe Locke, with Jackson’s last rhythm section of pianist Mike LeDonne, bassist Bob ranshaw and drummer Mickey Roker, delivered a hard swinging set of songs associated with the late great mallet master at The Kitano (Sep. 4th). The group opened the second set playing Jackson’s “The Prophet Speaks” with Locke lyrically swinging the uptempo number with strong support from the tight trio as he soloed. LeDonne followed, bopping in with some Monkish chords prodded by Roker’s smoking stick work. A short bass interlude introduced a drum break before the band took things out. The quartet next presented a relaxed reading of Ray Brown’s arrangement of “The Look of Love” with LeDonne and Locke interacting on the well known melody. Locke joked with the crowd as he introduced his soulful tribute to Roker, “Big Town”. Cranshaw and Roker opened up a smoking rendition of Jackson’s “Namesake”, after which a short conference led to “Stairway to the Stars” as the set’s ballad feature. The show’s requisite blues, “Used To Be Jackson”, set a straightahead finger snapping groove that smoothly segued into John Clayton’s slow and dirty “Serious Grease’, which was rendered with ironic humor. Locke introduced David Watson, who sang his newly crafted lyric to “Big Town”, recalling New York’s role in the early glory days of bebop. The quartet closed the set appropriately with a burning rendition of Jackson’s “Bags Groove”.

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