We are blessed to live in a time when a master jazz musician like Charles Lloyd walks among us. At the age of 87 he still tours regularly and seems to record as prolifically as at any time in his nearly 70 year career. The term spiritual jazz is well-worn, but if you wanted to point someone towards a living player who plays with and of spirit – it would be Lloyd. He also embodies the inquisitive and progressive nature of what it is to be a jazz giant – forever looking for new, enriching musical experiences. Hence his new, double, album finds him in the studio with a new trio. Jason Moran plays piano and Marvin Sewell guitar. Just as he looks forward Charles simultaneously looks back to those who have impacted his music and life. Figure in Blue includes heartfelt homages to Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and his longtime collaborator Zakir Hussain.
Lloyd originally convened this new trio for his 87th birthday concert at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara and immediately brought them into the studio. The band is a study in ensemble empathy – a clinic in knowing when to play and when to listen – owing to both experience and shared Southern roots. Moran, a generation-defining pianist who was born and raised in Houston, Texas, has been one of Lloyd’s most important collaborators for nearly two decades. “We arrive at the heart of the matter with very few words,” Lloyd says of their kinship.
Sewell has joined Lloyd onstage in various configurations and he’s of a piece with the comprehensive range of Lloyd and Moran’s musicianship. Trained in classical piano and jazz guitar, Sewell also plays bottleneck Delta blues with soul-stirring veracity. “Marvin has an authentic voice,” Lloyd says, going on to explain how Sewell’s playing can transport him to his own musical beginnings in Memphis. “Marvin grew up in Chicago but has family ties to the Mississippi Delta, and knows from first-hand experience the trials and tribulations we experienced on the red clay of the South. You can hear it in his playing.”
This is yet another high mark in a most extraordinary career.
This is Our Chosen One