Vibraphonist extraordinaire Joe Locke has dipped his toes in Brazilian waters before, and he’s done it with Trio da Paz, the native combo featuring Duduka Da Fonseca on percussion, Nilson Matta on bass and the ebullient acoustic guitarist Romero Lubambo. They’ve hooked up at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in August for three straight years, and they’ve traveled together. Their one joint recording, Live at JazzBaltica (MaxJazz), was recorded at the German festival in 2007.
On that album’s two Jobim tunes, Locke is conspicuously absent. Nor will you find Locke dipping into Jobim on any of his own CDs to date. But he’s surely ready to record Jobim now. During opening night of a six-night engagement at Dizzy’s, billed as “Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim & Stan Getz,” Locke jumped into Jobim’s familiar “Wave” with both feet-and a blur of four mallets-sending up a spray of dazzling music that could send timid musicians scurrying for the shore. That was mere prelude to the cyclonic intensity Locke loosed upon Milton Nascimento’s “Vera Cruz.” Lubambo had no immediate retort-had he attempted one, it might have capsized under the wave of applause that surged in Locke’s wake-but he built to a powerful rejoinder in less time than I anticipated.
