 Photo by Howard A Gitelson Yoshi's present legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd as he
returns with pianist Geri Allen, Eric Harland on drums and Larry
Grenadier on bass Thursday, June 23 -
Sunday, June 26.
Charles Lloyd
grew up in Memphis, moving to Los Angeles in 1956 to study at USC.
There he was influenced by Eric Dolphy, Don Cherry, and Ornette
Coleman, and first encountered Billy Higgins. In New York, Lloyd was a
sideman with the Chico Hamilton and Cannonball Adderley bands, and
played with Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus. His
legendary status in the 1960s world music movement culminated in his
historic appearance at the 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival with
then-undiscovered piano whiz Keith Jarrett and a young drummer named
Jack Dejohnnette. The resulting live recording, Forest Flower,
became one of the first jazz records to sell a million copies, a big
hit with an audience more attuned to rock than jazz. After touring in
the wake of his success, Lloyd retreated from public performance for
much of the 70s and 80s. “I thought that my music could change the
world. When I found out that I was wrong, I embarked upon a long
journey of trying to change my character and transform myself." Lloyd’s
retreat included meditation in Malibu and studying Eastern religious
thought in Big Sur.
Lloyd
made a brief return to recording and touring in the early 1980s as
mentor to French piano prodigy Michel Petrucciani; once the young star
launched his solo career, Lloyd again returned to the solitude of Big
Sur. Recovering from a nearly fatal intestinal disorder in the late
1980s, Lloyd was reinvested in his jazz career, and returned to
performing and recording, releasing his first ECM album, Fish Out of
Water (1990). He then hooked up with old friend Billy Higgins to record
Acoustic Masters in 1993; his series of stellar collaborations with
Higgins for ECM soon followed. Wrote Stereophile,
Eric Harland
has been smoking with a long list of highly respected jazz
musicians—from Betty Carter, McCoy Tyner, and Joe Henderson to Greg
Osby, Jason Moran, and Kenny Garrett. A native of Houston, Texas,
Harland was “discovered” at a high school workshop by Wynton Marsalis,
who encouraged him to study in New York City. Starting with a full
scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, Harland’s career has been
on a meteoric trajectory ever since. In addition to his numerous
performance and recording credits, he has also collaborated with
Terence Blanchard on a number of film scores. These days he regularly
tours with McCoy Tyner, Charles Lloyd, Jacky Terrasson, and Joshua
Redman's acoustic trio, and is a member of the prestigious San
Francisco Jazz Collective Group. Described by Ben Ratliffe in the New
York Times as an “agile and graceful drummer," John Kelman (Jazz
Review.com) notes that “he propels every tune… is incendiary, driving
every soloist.”
 Photo by Howard A Gitelson
"Lloyd's sound, pure and dark, is rich with bright overtones of
connotation, an elevated form of human utterance as song.”
Said Lloyd in an interview
for Down Beat
(April 1994), "I am blessed that for whatever reason I got the
saxophone, because it is an extension of myself. It somehow makes me
whole when I can hold on to it. Sometimes when I'm playing, I really
don't have to hold on. It's like levitation is happening ... It's
weightless ... It's effortless ... It's so unto itself." |