Saxophonist Charles Lloyd has always been a jazz musician who respects all music styles and brings them together on original pieces. He began recording in the early 1960s in Chico Hamilton's quintet, but by the mid-1960s he was recording with soul-jazz pioneer Cannonball Adderley and backing blues artists such as Bobby "Blue" Bland, Howlin' Wolf and B.B. King. Born in Memphis, Lloyd was well-versed in R&B and began recording as a leader in 1964. [Photo above of Charles Lloyd by D. Darr]
What sets Lloyd apart is the spiritual quality of his music and playing. Instead of forcing you to swallow jagged, rambling songs, his North Star seems to be a love of melody, harmony and tone. From there, he adds his soulful perspective with a hushed and hypnotic approach. You listen to his music, it sounds different but you never push away your plate. Lloyd's recordings win you over because they are interesting at every turn and on his terms, and you want to hear more.
His latest album is a fascinating, regal journey through a range of music ideas and hybrids. Recorded in March 2023, The Sky Will Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note), a double album, features Charles Lloyd (ts,fl), Jason Moran (p), Larry Grenadier (b) and Brian Blade (d,perc). The 15-song album showcases 14 original compositions and one public domain piece—Lift Every Voice and Sing—a hymn written as a poem by soon-to-be NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson, in 1900. The musical weave of Lloyd's new album came during the pandemic, when Lloyd felt despondent about the lockdown's isolation and the fatal illness that was running rampant.
As Lloyd writes in his liner notes:
My heart in knots, my mind at war with the situation. I came to the lunch table one day and told Dorothy that I wanted to go into the studio with Jason, Larry and Brian to make an offering of tenderness.
The quiet nature of Lloyd's playing on saxophone and flutes and the group's accompaniment and solos give the music an organic quality. The tracks have a textured folk feel that speak to you emotionally in a variety of musical dialects. There are pastoral elements, free jazz touches, church atmospherics and African shadings all sifted together tenderly. The result is extraordinary. [Photo above, from left, Brian Blade, Charles Lloyd, Larry Grenadier and Jason Moran by D. Darr]
If you listen to his discography over time, you will realize that Charles Lloyd has always been a presence. It's only in recent years, as towering jazz legends have faded, that he has become jazz's most interesting saxophonist and flutist. He's also one of jazz's most sensitive players with a golden ear for assembling astonishing groups. This album is no exception.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Charles Lloyd's The Sky Will Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note) here.
You'll also find the album on most streaming platforms, including YouTube here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Beyond Darkness...
And here's Booker's Garden...
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In the late 1960s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl planned to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. Beginning in 1970, she spent eight years tracking down and recording interviews with key artists and personalities who knew the late singer, who died in 1959. These interviews included conversations with Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms, and Count Basie as well as Holiday's cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her.
Kuehl's Holiday archives included interviews on 125 audio tapes, police files, transcripts of court cases, royalty statements, shopping lists, hospital records, private letters and transcripts and fragments of unfinished chapters. She would never complete what she started.
In 1978, Kuehl was found dead on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk after attending a Count Basie concert. The D.C. police concluded that her death was a suicide, determining that Kuehl jumped from her hotel room. Her family believes she may have been murdered for reasons unknown. Whether her mental history or the prescription drugs she was taking were ever investigated is also unknown. [Photo above of Linda Lipnack Kuehl]
In 2018, documentary director James Erskine bought the rights to Kuehl's tapes, and his resulting film, Billie, was released in 2019. This fascinating look at Holiday is a double tragedy—that of the brilliant, soulful singer's spiraling decline and Kuehl's own mysterious and terrible death at age 38.
Fortunately, Billie was recently posted on YouTube. Go here to view...
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This week in The Wall Street Journal, I interviewed actress Busy Philipps for my "House Call" column in the Mansion section (go here). Busy currently is in the movie Mean Girls and in the Netflix comedy series Girls5eva. [Photo above of Busy Philipps in Mean Girls by Jojo Whilden, courtesy of Paramount]
Here's the Mean Girls trailer...
And here's the Girls5eva trailer...
What I'm watching.
Last week...
Murdaugh Murders: The Movie, Parts 1 and 2—The two-part series stars Bill Pullman, who delivers a stunning portrayal of Alex Murdaugh. Part 1 covers the family life of one of South Carolina's wealthiest and prestigious families and the murder of his wife and son; Part 2 covers the trial. (Lifetime)
Here's the trailer...
The Gentlemen (2024)—Directed and produced by Guy Ritchie, the fast-paced action-comedy series is a spinoff of Ritchie's 2019 film of the same name. The second son of a wealthy British family inherits the family estate, which secretly includes a marijuana-growing empire. Actor Theo James must deal with eclectic and nefarious characters while trying to protect his home and stay alive. (Netflix)
Here's the trailer...
Previously watched and recommended...
TV series
Films
Documentaries
Anita O'Day. Following my post on singer Anita O'Day last week, I heard from Bill Kirchner [photo above of Anita O'Day by Kenn Duncan, courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection]...
Hi there. Your Anita O'Day posting reminded me of a week I spent working with her in the summer of 1982 at New York's Blue Note. I was part of her backup quartet: Mike Abene, piano; Rick Laird, bass; her longtime partner John Poole, drums; and me on tenor and soprano saxophones and flute.
As one might expect of someone with Anita's frequently harsh life experiences, she was pretty brittle, though I got along with her well enough. For whatever reason. though, she didn't sing very many ballads.
One night, however, Anita called "My Funny Valentine" at a slow tempo. She sang the melody and then, as we had predetermined, I soloed for a half-chorus and then paused for her to come back in. Apparently I was doing something right, because she motioned for me to finish the chorus. At that moment, I happened to look into her eyes; to my surprise, her protective shell seemed to disintegrate, revealing one very vulnerable soul.
It was one of the most unforgettable moments I've had in music, and one of the greatest wordless compliments I've ever received.
Louis Stewart. Following my post on the Irish jazz guitarist, John Stein sent along an email [photo above of Louis Stewart courtesy of Livia Records]...
Hi Marc. Something must be in the air today. Someone just posted on YouTube a link to Louis Stewart and Martin Taylor playing a concert with Stéphane Grappelli. It’s wonderful!
Go here...
Seinfeld and Prez. If you've never seen this episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, you'll get a kick out of it. If you have, you'll still get a kick out of seeing it again. I did. [Photo above by Pete Souza/The White House]
Go here...
Rob Crocker, a silver-voiced jazz radio host at WBGO-FM in Newark, N.J., for more than 30 years and an ardent JazzWax reader and email pal, died on March 7. He was 78. [Photo above of Rob Crocker courtesy of WBGO-FM]
Here's Rob in 2017...
Rosemary Clooney. Here's Rosey in her vocal prime singing Why Shouldn't I for the March of Dimes in 1962 with the orchestra arranged and conducted by Jerry Fielding [photo above of Rosemary Clooney courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer]...
Bugs Bunny & Co. Here's part of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra's Cartoons in Concert performance...
Do you fear jazz? These clips are from the BBC's The Mighty Boosh comedy show. Science teachers and the mentally ill! Go here...
Here's another...
Here's Sonny Stitt playing Bloodstone's Natural High, with Eddie Russ on Fender Rhodes, from an obscure early 1970s album called Tornado...
J.R. Monterose radio. On Sunday, Sid Gribetz of WKCR-FM in New York will host a five-hour Jazz Profiles tribute to saxophonist J.R. Monterose, from 2 to 7 p.m. Listen from anywhere in the world by going here. [Photo above of J.R. Monterose by Francis Wolff (c)Mosaic Images]
And finally, here are the Stylistics singing Let's Put It All Together...