Didier Lockwood

Didier Lockwood – The Kid (1983/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 40:19 minutes | 764 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

Lockwood’s The Kid is an “easy listening” fusion album that maintains the depth to be taken seriously. It certainly helps to have Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer keyboardist David Sacious (Springsteen, Clapton, Sting), guitar wizard Barry Finnerty (Miles Davis, Brecker Brothers), bassist Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report), and drummer Richie Morales (Spyro Gyra) as playmates.

There’s the popish Sunny Sonny, the driving Slight of Hands with its electrifying solos, the ear candy of Something Sweet, and the virtuoso up-tempo Bloody Mary, skirting the borders between hard-bop and fusion. The feel-good rock ballad A Time to Touch moves on to the melodic playground of The Kid. After La Ballad de Francis, Lockwood and Co take on Coltrane’s Impressions at breakneck speed, showing off serious jazz chops. My Favorite Dream is played out in synth heaven; at the end, you may not want to wake up from this fusion fantasy.

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Didier Lockwood – Open Doors (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:16:18 minutes | 820 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Okeh

No stranger to paths less trodden, Didier Lockwood brought out a genuinely surprising, fascinating album in 2016 with Apesantar – recorded in a single take. We enjoyed this jazz fusion record in a single sitting, like an immersive space opera filmed in zero-gravity… With Open Doors on the other hand, she returns to the fundamentals of jazz. At the head of a luxurious quartet made up of André Ceccarelli on drums, Romanian pianist Antonio Farao and Darryl Hall on double-bass, Lockwood delivers tremendously inspired improvisations. No frills, just jazz which is passed through a strict swing filter (the Ceccarelli/Hall rhythms are outstanding), and which serves as a reminder of the beauty of an instrument which lately has been quite rare in jazz: the violin.

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Didier Lockwood – Didier Lockwood Live in Montreux (1980/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 42:19 minutes | 813 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MPS

Released at the time in Europe by MPS and in the U.S. by the now-defunct Pausa label, the music from violinist Didier Lockwood’s 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival set is in both cases out of print. Lockwood, who can play like Stephane Grappelli, here opts for fusion in a sextet that also includes tenor saxophonist Bob Malach and keyboardist Jan Hammer. Lockwood’s unaccompanied “Four Strings Bitch” is a highlight of this well-played date.

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Didier Lockwood – The Unique Concert (1980/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:17 minutes | 1,33 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JMS Productions

An amazing cast that gave a concert at the Paris Jazz Festival on November 1, 1980 at the Théâtre de la Ville. Legends played together, and only on this occasion: Didier Lockwood, violin; Gordon Beck, piano; Allan Holdsworth, guitar; Aldo Romano, drums and Jean-François Jenny-Clark, double bass.
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