Didier Lockwood Group - Mahadevi
We're really in the thick of it this week, with 4 in 5 days beginning with a French Fusion fountainhead, sadly long gone from our realm, but born this very day in 1956.
Most music geeks know him from Christian Vander's ridiculously amazing concept band Magma, whom I've had on here before because let's be honest, can you trust a page that doesn't at least mention Magma?
I guess if you're gonna be known for a musical association you could do way worse than Magma, but to me Didier Lockwood is way more than just the violin voice in Vander's Opera-Rock-On-Other-Worlds arsenal.
I mean, the man recorded 20 records under his own name, in addition of course to however many collaborations where he appeared on someone else's LP.
Another of those rare, you-know-who-it-is-from-one-bar instrumentalists we try to plaster all over this page like gorgeous graffiti on a 1970s Bronx subway car, DL was never on the D.L. when it came to his instantly identifiable phrasing, tone, and the distinctive bite his playing always seemed to feature.
I guess if you heard him tell it, his playing was most influenced -- like a billion other fiddle folk -- by Stéphane Grappelli. Which is always in evidence in whatever he plays; some of the bite comes from a bounce he essentially inherited from SG, a deity of the instrument in every imaginable way.
I guess he first went electric in the 1960s -- that was a big thing then, oh look! I plugged in! -- after hearing Jean-Luc Ponty play an amplified violin.
Whilst JLP has a universe all his own, I actually prefer the music of Didier Lockwood, which might contain less notes-per-composition, but carries with it a much more intense Energy Music imprint along the lines of a Pharoah Sanders, for instance.
Naturally this is all subjective, and trying to describe music in words can be like trying to Scotch Tape a bowl of soup to a chalkboard, but I think what I'm getting at is clear.
Which is that if I was putting together the ultimate Fusion ensemble, the violin chair might go to Didier Lockwood over perhaps more popular and better-selling choices.
Anyway I've wanted to have him on here for ages, and although he passed away in 2018 too soon and just a week shy of 63, today being his 70th birthday seemed like the perfect moment.
There aren't a whole heckuva lot of ROIOs of him doing his own thing -- he's often featured in the bands of others and in all-star bands of various themes -- but there are a few.
Such as this woefully undercirculated broadcast from the early 1990s, which finds the Maestro out on home turf in a triumphant set.
Didier Lockwood Group
Studio Merlin
Paris, France
2.2.1991
01 Phoenix 90
02 My Blues
03 Paso
04 Mahadevi
05 Panama Split
06 Itxie
07 Polish
08 Brasilia
09 Cartoon
10 Alegria
11 Paul et Yves
12 Stormy Day
13 B Train Blues
Total 1:23:38
disc break goes after Track 07
Didier Lockwood - violin & WX7 saxophone
Jean Marie Ecay - guitar
Philip Guez - keyboards & electronics
Laurent Vernerey - bass
Loic Pontieux - drums
finkployd49's off-air cassette FM master capture of the original "Jazz Mag" broadcast over Europe 1
demuxed, remux-rebalanced, edited, retracked & remastered by EN, February 2026
619 MB FLAC/direct link
619 MB FLAC/direct link
The mix in this, while well-captured by the ORTF, was a tad drummy so I used the AI stem tool to rebalance it a smidge. Nothing too insane or radical though, tempting as it was to create a dub remix that put the whole 83 minutes through a Lee "Scratch" Perry-style series of cascading echo machines and dropped the drums out every 16 bars.
I will be smashing away at the sculpting stone all week here, resuming tomorrow with a really weird post that will make all the Prog Rock partisans pee themselves with pleasure. But not before we resin our collective bows and celebrate the late and great Didier Lockwood on his big birthday today!--J.
2.11.1956 - 2.18.2018