To give fun, musicians first have to feel it themselves. Friday at A Place for Jazz at SUNY Schenectady, the Warren Wolf/Joe Locke Quartet delivered epic fun in a thrilling show. They played classic songs with a joyful immediate enthusiasm – engaging, electric, deliriously dynamic. They were so loose they freelanced their second tune, falling into “Up Jumped Spring” to virtuoso perfection despite not having planned or rehearsed it at all. 

That followed a propulsive cohesive “Hot House” as opener, both Wolf and Locke playing vibraphones arranged in a V, facing each other with the open side toward the audience and drummer Eric Kennedy and bassist Blake Meister behind them.

From left, Warren Wolf, Blake Meister, Eric Kennedy, and Joe Jocke

They played in this configuration much of the two-set show, but tried on other formats in what felt free and spontaneous. For “Up Jumped Spring,” for example, Wolf went to the piano and locked as tight into its waltz-y swing as Locke, across the stage. Things turned thoughtful, softspoken in Carla Bley’s “Lawns;” Locke launching this meditative number in the trio before Wolfe jumped in. 

Wolf soloed mostly with two mallets but accompanied Locke’s solos with four mallets, which was Locke’s approach throughout. They’ve played together enough – including in a four-vibes group at the recent Chicago Jazz Festival – that they’re closely intuitive; so were Kennedy and Meister Friday. That thinking-together closeness allowed for an effortless swing. They clearly loved making things up as they went along. Yet the sturdy classic songs they chose held their basic contours while evolving constantly, like a forest on a familiar hillside, with shifting tree shapes flickering in the breeze.

The thing was seriously beautiful, the bright mercury shimmer of two vibraphones up front – or the Modern Jazz Quartet configuration of vibes, piano, bass and drums – while Meister’s bass made gorgeous tones and Kennedy employed cymbals so subtly that all that shiny treble sound never felt oppressive.

The shape-shifting – they could have called their thing the Wolf/Locke Musical Chairs Quartet – increased throughout, imparting surprise and showcasing unexpected skills, combinations and arrangement possibilities. 

After the three opening ensemble numbers, Locke spoke reverently of Billy Strayhorn to introduce “Lush Life” as an unaccompanied solo, lovely and lyrical. At one point he struck a note and created vibrato not in the usual way with the pedal below but by holding his mouth low over the bar and opening and closing it to shape the reverberant air.

Meister got one of his rare solos in a high-flying number I didn’t recognize; fortunately Don Nania came by to identify “Firm Roots” – an all-in blast of roller coaster energy: Gravity? What gravity!?

They seemed to pocket its gleeful glide as they left the stage, then tugged it out again on return and let it fly.

I should have sought Nania out to name-that-tune after intermission, a swaggering bop number that perfectly set up “Maiden Voyage” with Wolf at the piano, until he swapped with Locke. This got deliciously loose, Locke falling into Miles’s immortal “So What” riff at the vibes after re-swapping, accompanying Wolfe’s piano exploration with emphatic drive.

A gorgeous one-two of “Chelsea Bridge” and “Naima” brought more migration/mutation as the players moved around freely. Meister went to the piano, Wolf stayed on the vibes until Locke smilingly gestured to him to go play bass instead. Laughs all around, but Wolf kept the pulse as strong on four strings as on 88 keys or 37 metal bars of the vibraphone.

This ever-changing stuff was never just tricks for tricks sake; this was ace music-making by thought-sharing virtuosos having and giving a wonderful time.

In one of the biggest surprises all night, Kennedy sang “Skylark” – first drawing amazed gasps, then inviting everybody inside its lyric and sentiment as if into a sumptuous easy chair. It felt like he’d handed us all a cocktail.

Even in things that might have been obvious in other hands, things felt fresh. I mean, a two-vibes quartet playing (vibes-master) Milt “Bags” Jackson’s “Bags Groove” – who wouldn’t have expected that? This was cliche free, reshaped by fresh imagination and pure joy.

The quartet didn’t need much standing ovation support to come back to encore big with “Bud Powell.” 

Susan Brink and Hal Miller

Before the show, Susan Brink of the Jazz Journalists Association presented the association’s Jazz Hero award to Hal Miller, the Albany jazz drummer, super-fan, teacher and video archivist. He celebrated his jazz-rich New York childhood and spoke of seeing the greats there. And he embraced his fellow fans in a community – “the chosen ones,” he called us; “because we know.”

At intermission, AP4J President Bill McCann spotted me lurking near the stage with camera and notebook and invited me to say a few words about this blog. I have no idea what I said, but hope I gave the URL correctly and feel seriously grateful to Maestro McCann for that shout-out deluxe.

Bill McCann