Edmar Castañeda & Joe Locke Duo @ Jazz Standard 5/26/10

This was excellent. Edmar played both the Colombian harp and the traditional harp, so he didn't have to worry about changing keys. I never saw him on the traditional harp, which has pedals. He was awesome on both, truly awesome. I definitely enjoyed the Colombian harp more, it had more of a gritty sound. It might have been due to him playing most of Joe Locke's music on the traditional and his own music on the Colombian.

The harp/vibraphone combo is a great one. I think they should find a great percussionist and really jam with it. Write their own music for a trio.

The listing:

Edmar Castaneda – Colombian harp
Joe Locke – vibraphone

Edmar Castañeda fell in love with the Colombian harp as a boy growing up in Bogota. But when he moved to the U.S. with his family at age 16 (as he told National Public Radio), Edmar found that "in high school here, they have bands. They didn't have harps. And then I wanted to play jazz. So I went to college playing the trumpet, and it was great, because I learned all the jazz improvisation, and I just passed it to the harp.” Edmar has added his masterful technique and exploratory improvisations to the music of Lila Downs and Paquito D'Rivera, but among his most frequent collaborators is the wonderful four–mallet vibraphonist Joe Locke – Edmar’s duet partner for this special Jazz Standard one-nighter and a featured player on Entre Cuerdas, the harpist’s second release as a leader and his first for ArtistShare. Joe’s most recent release is For the Love of You, which features vocalist Kenny Washington.