Search - Didier Lockwood :: Tribute to Stephanie Grappelli

You'd never guess that Didier Lockwood began his career playing violin in a rock group. He went on to play fusion and eventually join drummer Tony Williams's band. But in this evocation of Stephane Grappelli, Lockwood shows that he's completely at home with the music of Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Lockwood's playing here is in the great French tradition of jazz violin that Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty dominated during the last decades of the 20th century. Lockwood's a virtuoso in any terms, whether he's bowing or dazzling with pizzicato on "Les Valeuses". There's a good selection of classics here--including "Nuages," "Minor Swing," and "Tears"--and the mood is heightened by the acoustic guitarist Bireli Lagrene, whose solos rocket along, and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. How could such a convention of virtuosos fail? It doesn't, of course. The music, coupled with the CD's superb balance and recording by the French engineers, manages to be at once nostalgic and fresh. That's because, while holding onto and respecting the spirit of Steph and Django, the trio brings its collective imagination to bear on the old tunes. C'est magnifique! --Steve Voce