Charles Lloyd - Trios: Sacred Thread (2022)

Spirituality has always been at the center of Charles Lloyd's music. The other constant in the octogenarian saxophonist's work is his ability to stretch. Over his career, he's played blues and rock, had funky moments, and, of course, ranged across much of the jazz spectrum. He's added his horn to recordings and live performances by Cannonball Adderley, Joe Sample, The Beach Boys and The Doors. In 1973, after being influenced by the zeitgeist of Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha, Lloyd recorded Geeta, an album that mixed his brand of improvisational free jazz with traditional Indian music. Forty-nine years later, with the last of a trilogy of trio albums from 2022 that includes Trios: Chapel (with guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan) and Trios: Ocean (with guitarist Anthony Wilson and pianist Gerald Clayton) Lloyd has rekindled his interest in Indian influences with guitarist Julian Lage and percussionist Zakir Hussain (Rakha's son). This session, a recording of a live-streamed concert performed without an audience in September, 2020, in Healdsburg, California, was captured in clear, natural sound by Adam Camardella, under the overall supervision of Joe Harley. The resonances of Hussain's tabla are particularly impressive. The opening number, the Lloyd original "Desolation Sound" from his 2010 album Mirror, is kind of a shakedown cruise where the players contribute as they search for a working symbiosis. Hussain sings on "Guman," the only voice present on any of the trio albums. His high, at times pitch-challenged vocals do add a haunting flavor to the south Asian mélange surrounding this meditative session. Playing more alto flute than tenor sax, Lloyd also adds the tárogató—a woodwind instrument with a melancholy sound—to several tunes including extended solos on "Saraswati." He also opens Hussain's ballad "Kuti" with beautiful long flute lines before he joins Lage, both proving to be sensitive accompanists and then partners in a track where the connections and conversation between the trio click best. The steady tabla rhythms and the inventive guitar solo here also show Hussain and Lage at their playful, upbeat best. A fitting conclusion to this quiet, reflective exploration is the Lloyd-penned "The Blessing" where Lage and Lloyd sift while Hussain adds intermittent shaker to this solemn coda. A bonafide wonder whose incredible career happily continues, Lloyd's perspective may be his superpower: "I keep being blessed by souls who find a way to me, it still inspires me to go out on the high wire and try to fly.

TRACKLIST

1. Charles Lloyd - Desolation Sound
2. Charles Lloyd - Guman
3. Charles Lloyd - Nachekita's Lament
4. Charles Lloyd - Saraswati
5. Charles Lloyd - Kuti
6. Charles Lloyd - Tales of Rumi
7. Charles Lloyd - The Blessing