Kindred

There should be a warning on the album cover "Do not operate heavy machinery or drive an automobile while listening to this CD." The very first sound is a splash, and believe me it's your consciousness taking a dive into the deep end. It's interesting the attention Charlie Roscoe (the brain behind Jairamji) gives to creating environments. On several of the tracks you'll hear birds, streams & waterfalls. These sounds gently enhance the aspect of "another time another space", which is essential for a nice variation of the chill. This album is a vacation for your mind. Everyone needs a way out from the daily grind, and Kindred Spirits is a four star vehicle…

When tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd turned 80, he made sure to mark the occasion with an epic concert at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre. His youthful quintet Kindred Spirits is anchored by his longstanding New Quartet rhythm section (bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland), but with them are pianist Gerald Clayton and guitarist Julian Lage, both newer arrivals to the Lloyd universe and major leaders in their own right. Clayton imaginatively inhabits a space once filled by his predecessor, Jason Moran, while Lage (playing a Telecaster) follows in a line of acclaimed Lloyd guitar sidemen (John Abercrombie, Bill Frisell, and Gabor Szabo). Playing tried-and-true Lloyd repertoire beginning with “Dream Weaver,” the title track of his first Atlantic LP from ’66, and ending with the abstract, explosive “Part 5, Ruminations,” Kindred Spirits captures the essence of Lloyd’s mystical jazz vision, and gives it new, forward-thinking shape as well.