Which Way IS East

Charles Lloyd & Billy Higgins - Which Way Is East (2004) {2CD Set, ECM 1878~79}
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© 2004 ECM Records | ECM 1878~79 / 981 1796
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Folk Jazz / Saxophone

Over two CDs, these recordings of Charles Lloyd and his longtime collaborator and friend, the late Billy Higgins, offer perhaps an even more fitting epitaph for the great drummer than the previously issued Water Is Wide and companion album Hyperion With Higgins, both with the Lloyd sextet. These sides were recorded just five months before Higgins' death. The music is divided into eight suites, and the two men pulled every trick out of the kit bag for these sessions.

The East West Collective constituted one of the surprise hits of the 2013 Vision Festival in New York City. As their name implies the five strong outfit comprises improvisers from both the Occident and Orient. Their origin lies in French cellist Didier Petit's regular visits to the Far East, often with clarinetist Sylvain Kassap in tow, where he perceived a connection between Chinese traditional music and European improvisation. Guzheng player Xu Fengxia and koto exponent Miya Masaoka were invited to join for tours in France and America, and with the addition of reedman Larry Ochs (the "O" of the ROVA saxophone quartet, and a frequent collaborator of Masaoka), the East West Collective was born.