In his 84th year on earth, Charles Lloyd is slowly embodying the spirit that he has been playing on his recent albums. The series of trio albums that he has been releasing are reminiscent of the latter days of Ben Webster, where all that was needed was a simple blowing of the fog to get the musical/spiritual point across. This latest rendition with guitarist Julian Lage and percussionist Zakir Hussain feels like the musical equivalent of Big Sur’s Esalen Institute, with an emphasis on Eastern mysticism and reaching out into the Infinite.
Lloyd’s tenor sax sighs and gasp in ways that are both reminiscent of Coltrane’s Ballads album, but a step beyond, hovering like a mist on “Desolation Song” and hovering for the liturgical “The Blessing”. His flute is gentle as it joins with cantoral voices on “Kuti” as Hussain’s tablas guide the music through the mystical path, and Lage gives a sitar like tone on the jam-like “Tales Of Rumi”. Lloyd goes contemplative all his own on the monastic “Saraswati” on the taragato, with Lage and Hussain going modal on the Middle Eastern “Nachekita’s Lament”, and Lage’s strings ever so patient and reflective around the chant of “Guman”. Music with and for a soul.