There are few artists these days that you just feel that you need to get everything they put out or see them anytime they come to town, because you never know what to expect (in a good way). Charles Lloyd is one of the few, and this recent release with Bill Frisell/g, Greg Leisz/psg, Reuben Rogers/b and Eric Harland/dr is an apt demonstration. This team was together for 2016’s I Long To See You, but sans vocalists, making the outing a bit more abstract and intuitive-all the better.
Lloyd visits material by the kaleidoscopic range of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, Leonard Cohen and Gabor Szabo along with some material of his own. On flute he takes 11 minutes for a spacious and floating “Lady Gabor” while fluttering over a nifty groove on “Dismal Swamp.” His tenor is laconic over Harland’s busy drums on Coleman’s “Peace” while “Ramblin” has a folk feel with the homespun guitars framing the melody. Lloyd’s breathy subtones are a perfect foil for Frisell and Leisz on “Monk’s Mood” while he huffs and puffs but doesn’t blow the house down on “Ay Amor”. The closing “Prayer” mixes mournful and patient cries from the pilgrim on tenor with shotgun travels with guitar carrying him along like Walter Brennan to James Stewart. A rich travelogue of sounds and meditations.