A Meeting Along The River
Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain & Marvin Sewell
Musical Performance Trio / Improvised Music & Jazz 0The group, with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and guitarist Marvin Sewell, explores ways of integrating classical Indian music with jazz improvisation—a long-standing interest of Lloyd's that dates back to his college days at the University of Southern California. In fact, the trio began life as a duo in 2001. [...] “I had met Zakir the previous year—we felt a connection and I knew that there could be a very special meeting in the music, so I kept looking for other opportunities for us to get together. Marvin comes out of Chicago and the Delta, he's very soulful and versatile, with a great affinity for the music of India”, Lloyd says.
Perhaps more than with any other artist in jazz today, the music of tenor saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd reflects and refracts his musical past. Lived moments experienced during an artistically fulfilling career have gone on to enjoy a second life, a life in the memory, from where they resurface to inspire and inform his music in the here and now. It is no exaggeration to say that understanding Lloyd’s past can help us gain purchase, however slight, on his music in the present. Given his resolutely contemporary outlook, this may seem something of a contradiction, yet his improvisations come from a place deep within where wisdom born of experience shapes and inspires his creativity.
Just like Scheherazade in Middle Eastern poetry, Lloyd is the eternal storyteller, weaving tales that seem to flow from a limitless well of inspiration. While they can charm and beguile, they also vibrate with meaning and deeply felt emotion. But probe a little deeper and you will find the blues shaping and informing his musical narrative. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1938, he comes from the heartland of the blues, and his formative years were shaped by the bands of the great blues masters such as Howlin’ Wolf, B. B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland. “The blues comes and haunts me because it’s part of my background,” Lloyd told me. “It was quite something playing with those guys, Howlin’ Wolf—I mean, no one ever shook a building like he did… And I’m a kid in my teens and Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland told me I played his song Peaches better than anyone who ever played it.”
The most important lesson Lloyd took from these musicians was the importance of communicating with the audience, something he has never forgotten. “I had this experience when I played with them, marveling at how they could take the rafters off a building. They were communicators. I was very moved at how they could move an audience. A lot of guys can play, but their music doesn’t leave the bandstand, whereas these guys reached the back of the hall all the time. That was mesmerizing and very touching for me, and somehow I got infected by it—I knew it was important to communicate when you’re blessed to have something to say.”
Lloyd’s ability to touch an audience through the magic of improvisation has been a leitmotif that flows through his whole career— from his early work with Chico Hamilton and Cannonball Adderley to his first great quartet with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette in the 1960s that recorded Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd at Monterey in 1966, one of the first million-sellers in jazz. Great magic has had a habit of recurring throughout Charles Lloyd’s career. Part of the reason is his willingness to experiment and place himself in challenging musical situations that in turn seem to inspire him to reach a higher plain of creative music making. In fact, during the last 20 years, a time when most jazz musicians of his age look to reduce their work schedule, he has continued to challenge himself with an ever-increasing variety of musical combinations. These performances at the Pierre Boulez Saal perfectly illustrate the point: with two concerts and two trios whose musical personality, ambition, and outlook are entirely different.
—Stuart Nicholson
Notes extract originally published in the Pierre Boulez Saal program book for the concert festival “A Charles Lloyd Celebration” from December 4 to 7, 2021.
Charles Lloyd
Saxophone
Zakir Hussain
Tabla
Marvin Sewell
Guitar
Produced by Zabrisky Film
Camera
Ede Müller
Franz Thienel
Hans Schauerte
Edition & Colour Grading
Franz Thienel
Recording Engineer
Lorenz Fischer
Balance Engineer
Jakob Mäsel
A Production of the Pierre Boulez Saal © 2021 Pierre Boulez Saal. All rights reserved.