Charles Lloyd was named an NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) Jazz Master in 2015 and for good reason: BBC Radio called him “one of the greatest saxophonists on the planet, never afraid of experiment, but never out of touch with his audience.” With legendary collaborators, such as Cannonball Adderley and Keith Jarrett, and blockbuster records, such as Forest Flower (1967) with his eponymous quartet, this jazz lifer has proven himself a versatile and generous sideman as well as a trailblazing bandleader.
Charles Lloyd and the Marvels is a group that pairs Lloyd with the great Bill Frisell, another legendary collaborator who was named by the New York Times as “one of the most distinctive and original improvising guitarists of our time.” The Marvels’ 2016 Blue Note Records album, I Long to See You, featured elegant takes on American hymns, folk anthems, and protest songs. National Public Radio called their collaboration “music that evokes an uncommon state of grace.”
The critical consensus is that Charles Lloyd has never sounded better. The depth of his expression reflects a lifetime of experience. He has a legendary history in the music world and could certainly be in a position to slow down and rest on his laurels. But looking back has never been of great interest to this tender warrior, this seeker of beauty and truth. “Go forward” is his motto, as he keeps shifting to a higher, well-calibrated gear.
Lloyd’s concerts and recordings are events of pristine beauty and elegance, full of intensely felt emotion and passion that touches deep inside the heart. This is not entertainment but the powerful uncorrupted expression of beauty through music. When music vibrates, the soul vibrates and touches the spirit within. Peter Watrous of the New York Times exclaimed, “Mr. Lloyd has come up with a strange and beautiful distillation of the American experience, part abandoned and wild, part immensely controlled and sophisticated.”
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