CHARLES LLOYD | BILLY HIGGINS - Which Way Is East (2004) 2xCD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Over two CDs, these recordings of Charles Lloyd and his longtime collaborator and friend, the late Billy Higgins, offer perhaps an even more fitting epitaph for the great drummer than the previously issued Water Is Wide and companion album Hyperion With Higgins, both with the Lloyd sextet. These sides were recorded just five months before Higgins' death. The music is divided into eight suites, and the two men pulled every trick out of the kit bag for these sessions. Lloyd mans his usual array of saxophones and flutes as well as sings and plays taragato, Tibetan oboe, and piano. Higgins, on the other hand, in addition to his ever-dancing style of drumming, plays blues guitar, guimbri, various hand drums, and the Syrian one-string lute. The combinations are intimate yet the music is sprawling in its reach. Whether in duet or in the various solos included -- notable is "All This Is That: Blues Tinge," on which Higgins plays a stellar Delta blues on acoustic guitar and sings -- the notion that there are no boundaries and no time, that everything must get onto tape, is the pervasive m.o. Here are two men who know each other so well that the anticipation of utterance comes from the least likely sources. Egos have no place here, and neither does didactic discussion. Here, notions of song, tonality, sonorous expression, and spirituality are the guidelines for trying to get to feelings, nuances, and individual places that they've not traveled before. They succeed in spades. Despite its smallness and the quiet spirit that weaves these pieces together, there is crackling energy, humor, warmth, and a complete commitment to expressing what may indeed be beyond real expression. Not since John Coltrane and Rashied Ali's Interstellar Space -- though they sound nothing alike -- has there been a duet recording of such unfettered communication. Highly recommended.
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Tracklist 1 :
What Is Man   
1    The Forest 3:32
Flute [C Flute], Maracas, Shaker [Shakers], Voice – Charles Lloyd
Music By – Billy Higgins, Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Juno's Wood Box], Voice – Billy Higgins
2    Being And Becoming 4:43
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Guimbri, Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
3    Civilization 4:35
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
4    Sea Of Tranquility 2:40
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Piano – Charles Lloyd
Divans   
5    Prayer, Sanctuary 4:12
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
6    Supreme Love Dance 3:35
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
7    A Wild And Holy Band 3:52
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums, Whistle – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Salaam   
8    Oh, Karim 2:29
Guimbri, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
9    Akhi 5:58
Alto Flute, Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Music By – Charles Lloyd
10    Ya, Karim 5:51
Guimbri, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
11    Tagi 4:13
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Oboe [Tibetan Oboe] – Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Hand Drum] – Billy Higgins
All This Is That   
12    Hanuman's Dance 13:04
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
13    Sky Valley 5:57
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Piano – Charles Lloyd
14    Blues Tinge 5:00
Guitar, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
15    Atman Alone Abides 2:56
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Hand Drum] – Billy Higgins
Tárogató [Taragato] – Charles Lloyd
Tracklist 2 :
Desire   
1    Wild Orchids Bloom 6:40
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
2    Advaita 3:34
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Piano – Charles Lloyd
3    Chomolungma 12:53
Alto Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Devotion   
4    Sally Sunflower Whitecloud 3:06
Bass Flute, Maracas – Charles Lloyd
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Hand Drums], Shaker [Shakers] – Billy Higgins
5    My Lord, My Lord 6:09
Music By – Billy Higgins, Charles Lloyd
Oboe [Tibetan Oboe] – Charles Lloyd
Strings [Syrian 'One String'], Voice – Billy Higgins
6    Windy Mountain 5:34
Drums – Billy Higgins
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
7    Through Fields And Underground 3:46
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Piano – Charles Lloyd
Light Of Love   
8    Mi Corazon
Guitar, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
9    Beloved, Chimes At Midnight 5:15
Music By – Billy Higgins, Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Hand Drum] – Billy Higgins
Tárogató [Taragato], Gong – Charles Lloyd
10    Take A Chance 4:01
Guitar, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
Surrender   
11    Perfume Of The Desert 4:30
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
12    Benares 2:18
Music By – Charles Lloyd
Oboe [Tibetan Oboe] – Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Hand Drum] – Billy Higgins
13    Amor 4:23
Guitar, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins
14    Forever Dance 1:48
Flute, Maracas – Charles Lloyd
Music By – Billy Higgins, Charles Lloyd
Percussion [Juno's Wood Box], Voice – Billy Higgins
15    Bis 3:44
Guitar, Voice – Billy Higgins
Music By – Billy Higgins