Charles Lloyd The Flowering

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams - Vanished Gardens (2018) {Blue Note} (Complete Artwork - Digipak with 12 pages)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 415 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 170 Mb
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© 2018 Charles Lloyd / Blue Note Records | 00602567588481
Jazz / Country / Modern Jazz / Americana / Contemporary Jazz

On Charles Lloyd & the Marvels 2016 debut, I Long to See You, the ensemble – the saxophonist's rhythm section, drummer Eric Harland and bassist Reuben Rogers, and guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz – delivered an honorable but overly deferential outing that somewhat belied the promise of its personnel. On Vanished Gardens, the Marvels leave deference in the dustbin. Here, with the assistance of Lucinda Williams, they create a music that draws on the sum total of experience and shared emotion.

In concert, the Charles Lloyd Quartet took care of business, so it's fortunate to have this reissue bringing back two of the group's live recordings: a 1968 date from Town Hall in New York and a 1967 concert from a jazz festival in Estonia. The two dates flow together as a unified document of the quartet in its prime. Soundtrack opens with "Sombrero Sam," an expansive piece of soul-jazz with a Keith Jarrett deconstruction of a Joe Zawinul-style line (circa Zawinul's time with Cannonball Adderley). This sets up the leader for a funky excursion on flute. A breathy falsetto soliloquy from Lloyd on tenor then segues perfectly into a dynamic performance of his "Forest Flower." "Voice in the Night" from the original Atlantic release is not included on the reissue…

Like 1999's Voice in the Night, The Water Is Wide features Charles Lloyd in the company of one of his dearest friends, drummer Billy Higgins, who would pass away less than a year after the album's release. Guitarist John Abercrombie also remains on board, but Lloyd extends the group's generational span by recruiting two younger players: pianist Brad Mehldau and bassist Larry Grenadier. The album begins with a straightforward, elegant reading of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia."

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.

When Charles Lloyd brought his new band to Monterey in 1966, a band that included Keith Jarrett on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and the inimitable - though young - Cecil McBee on bass, no one knew what to expect. But they all left floored and this LP is the document of that set. It is difficult to believe that, with players so young (and having been together under a year), Lloyd was able to muster a progressive jazz that was so far-reaching and so undeniably sophisticated, yet so rich and accessible. For starters, the opening two title tracks, which form a kind of suite (one is "Forest Flower-Sunrise," the other "Sunset"), showcased the already fully developed imagination of Jarrett as a pianist. His interplay with DeJohnette - which has continued into the 21st century in a trio with Gary Peacock - is remarkable: whispering arpeggios surrounded by large chords that plank up the drumming as DeJohnette crosses hands and cuts the time in order to fluctuate the time…