Charles Lloyd is one of the most prolific of the jazz legends. Since his first album as leader in 1964 he has released an album almost every year. Now, well into his eighties, he stands tall as a woodwind instrumentalist who has covered more genres and influenced more spaces than almost any other. Indeed, he described music “infecting” him at a young age, and the fever has kept its hold ever since.
Here we see him in one of the most important years in his career, 1966. It was the year that he founded his famous quartet including Cecil McBee, Jack DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett, all of whom became giants of the jazz world in their own right. They start with the early standard “East of the Sun,” a track from the seminal Forest Flower, and move into Lloyd’s own compositions, demonstrating what guitarist and journalist Peter Wastrous described as a “strange and beautiful distillation of the American experience, part abandoned and wild, part immensely controlled and sophisticated.”
Jarrett is spellbinding on the keys, McBee endlessly adventurous on the bass and DeJohnette flawless on the kit. Switching between flute and sax, Lloyd draws together the different strands, forming them into one nucleus that vibrates with mystifying splendour.
