CHARLES LLOYD & THE MARVELS - I Long to See You (2016) Digipack | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd has been working with guitarists periodically since the 1950s: Calvin Newborn, Gabor Szabo, John Abercrombie, and others have played in his bands. On I Long to See You, he (with his stellar rhythm section -- bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland) renews that relationship with two gifted players: Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz (the latter on lap and pedal steel). This program yields folk and spiritual songs, re-recordings of Lloyd's own tunes, a pop nugget, and a new original. In what feels like the input from the label, there are two guest vocal appearances to boot: Willie Nelson beautifully delivers Ed McCurdy's antiwar classic "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," and Norah Jones offers a slow, dreamy reading of "You Are So Beautiful." I Long to See You feels more like a collaboration between Lloyd and Frisell than a leader date, which is sometimes problematic: these men can be overly deferential to one another. The album starts promisingly with a brooding read of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" that threatens to explode at any moment. Frisell and Leisz (who have worked together a lot) take it through deep winding blues, building tension before Lloyd enters and carries it toward the outside before returning to blues, while Harland's circular drumming becomes somberly hypnotic. Lloyd plays flute on "Of Course, of Course" (originally recorded for an album of the same name for Columbia in 1964). Like its predecessor, it's tough, swinging post-bop with colorful slide guitar work and rim-shot syncopations. "La Llorona," from Lloyd's ECM years, is a standout: it captures his open, mournful, Spanish-tinged wail, fleshed out by elegant, timbral guitars, a sad bassline, and Harland's magical timekeeping. "Shenandoah" (which Frisell has recorded before), "All My Trials," and "Abide with Me" are all melodically attractive, but they lack the undercurrent of passion Lloyd has imbued traditional material with in the past. He and Frisell appear so seduced by their melodies, they treat them as fragile objects, not songs whose meanings need to be further explored. Frisell's speculative solo intro on "Sombrero Sam" is overly long; Lloyd's rhythmic sweeping flute doesn't enter until five minutes in, and slips out too quickly. The lone new tune, "Barche Lamsel," more than compensates. Over 16 minutes in length, it's easily the most exploratory thing here. It commences slowly but starts cooking five minutes in. Lloyd and the rhythm section are at their modal improvisational best, moving through folk, funk, blues, Eastern modes, and post-bop. Frisell and Leisz lend fine solos as well as layered textural and atmospheric support. The tune is a journey that ends in a question mark. I Long to See You is well worth investigating even if, at times, it is overly tentative.
|> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <|
Tracklist :
1    Masters of War 8'05
Bob Dylan   
2     Of Course, of Course 6'03
Charles Lloyd   
3     La Llorona 6'02
Traditional   
4     Shenandoah 6'23
Traditional   
5     Sombrero Sam 7'31
Charles Lloyd   
6     All My Trials 5'02
Traditional   
7     Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream 4'48
Ed McCurdy   
8     Abide with Me 1'22
Traditional   
9     You Are So Beautiful 6'05
Bruce Fisher / Billy Preston   
10     Barche Lamsel 16'25
Charles Lloyd
Credits :
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Featuring, Vocals – Norah Jones (pistas: 9)
Featuring, Vocals, Guitar – Willie Nelson (pistas: 7)
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Producer [Produced By] – Charles Lloyd, Don Was, Dorothy Darr
Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Flute – Charles Lloyd

CHARLES LLOYD & THE MARVELS + LUCINDA WILLIAMS - Vanished Gardens (2018) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

On Charles Lloyd & the Marvels 2016 debut, I Long to See You, the ensemble -- the saxophonist's rhythm section, drummer Eric Harland and bassist Reuben Rogers, and guitarists Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz -- delivered an honorable but overly deferential outing that somewhat belied the promise of its personnel. On Vanished Gardens, the Marvels leave deference in the dustbin. Here, with the assistance of Lucinda Williams, they create a music that draws on the sum total of experience and shared emotion. Lloyd, Frisell, and Leisz have all worked with rockers and country and blues players, while Harland and Rogers are jazz modernists rooted in tradition. The addition of Williams on four of her own tunes and a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" transforms this band into a genre-blurring ensemble whose abilities mine the jazz and Americana traditions to redefine them in the new century.

"Defiant" commences as an extended showcase for Lloyd's modal and melodic soloing with loping pedal steel inside a 4/4 shuffle with Frisell's lonesome, lyrical playing. Williams enters on "Dust." The song originally appeared on 2016's Ghosts of Highway 20. In waltz time, Frisell's rockist power chords and Leisz's lap steel wails meet Lloyd's swirling, loping tenor that offers blues vamps amid post-bop swells to frame Williams' haunted, grainy vocal as she sings: "You couldn’t cry if you wanted to/Even your thoughts are dust," before erupting in a post-Coltrane solo with Frisell climbing behind him. The title track, with its skittering rhythms, wavelike pedal steel passes, and matched solos by Frisell and Lloyd, is a bluesy exercise in improvisation. The arrangement in Williams' "Ventura," (that appeared on West), remains startlingly close to that of the original, but Lloyd's soulful phrasing undergirds her singing with a particularly Southern grace. The inclusion of the standard "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" feels like an outlier. It's a skeletal, impressionistic ballad that lacks an anchoring center, it simply hovers and floats. Not so with the singer's raggedy gospel in "We've Come Too Far to Turn Around," where the weariness in the lyric meets the band's ability to braid Williams' voice with an emotional color palette that matches her own. The 11-plus-minute reading of her "Unsuffer Me" is the perfect meld of rock, blues, and modern post-bop jazz as both guitarists engage one another and Lloyd, who serves as the bridge between them and the singer with squeals, blurts, and flutters with his moaning horn. "Monk's Mood" is lovely, but only because of Lloyd's playing. The closing Hendrix cover is presented as a country-gospel meditation on love and eternity. Williams treats the tune as if it were her own; Frisell and Leisz surround her in soft, luxuriant textures as Lloyd accompanies her in a kind of spacy, hooky duet. Interestingly, the uneven moments on Vanished Gardens have more to do with the Marvels' reticence on the standards. Otherwise, the pairing of this band with Williams sounds natural, effortless, and holistic. There's definitely room for a sequel.
|>This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<|
Tracklist :
1    Defiant 8'41
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Written-By – Charles Lloyd
2    Dust 7'58
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Vocals – Lucinda Williams
Written-By – Lucinda Williams
3    Vanished Gardens 9'03
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar, Dobro – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Written-By – Charles Lloyd
4    Ventura 6'22
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Vocals – Lucinda Williams
Written-By – Lucinda Williams
5    Ballad Of The Sad Young Men 6'17
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Written-By – Fran Landesman, Tommy Wolf
6    We've Come Too Far To Turn Around 6'30
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Dobro – Greg Leisz
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Vocals – Lucinda Williams
Written-By – Lucinda Williams
7    Blues For Langston And LaRue 5'38
Alto Flute – Charles Lloyd
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Written-By – Charles Lloyd
8    Unsuffer Me 11'42
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Pedal Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone, Vocals [Ghost Vocals] – Charles Lloyd
Vocals – Lucinda Williams
Written-By – Lucinda Williams
9    Monk's Mood 5'15
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Written-By – Thelonious Monk
10    Angel 5'53
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd
Vocals – Lucinda Williams
Written-By – Jimi Hendrix

CHARLES LLOYD & the MARVELS - Tone Poem (2021) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Tone Poem is the third album by saxophonist Charles Lloyd's Americana jazz quintet the Marvels -- guitarist Bill Frisell, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland. Cut over several years in California studios and from a Madrid stage, it comprises six covers and three Lloyd originals. The album marks the first time the band have recorded without singers. At 82, Lloyd is a master of the form who knows what he wants from his sidemen and how to get it.

Reinventions of two Ornette Coleman classics introduce the set. The composer's bluesy feel comes through immediately in "Peace" as Leisz, Frisell, and Lloyd engage its relaxed, syncopated melody even more slowly than on the original. Lloyd's solo underscores the Middle Eastern modalism in Coleman's tags as the string players extrapolate on the blues. On "Ramblin'," Leisz's pedal steel choogles, emulating a train (perhaps the Midnight Flyer out of Lloyd's native Memphis). The saxophonist adds a few notes from American folk song "Shortnin' Bread" before grabbing on to Coleman's mutant bop head. Frisell's playing is all sparking blues and shuffling alongside Leisz's. Harland's martial rim shots could lead a NOLA second line parade as the jam departs for open spaces. Songwriter Leonard Cohen loved and celebrated traditional country music -- he often carried a copy of Hank Williams' collected lyrics on tour. The Marvels' version of Cohen's "Anthem" would have earned his deep appreciation. While the string players follow the languid tempo and harmony, Lloyd solos up and down the melody, expanding it incrementally as if it were being imparted to him in a dream. The musician's sensitivity and spiritual empathy are redolent. His "Dismal Swamp" is a funky soul-jazz wherein he leads the band with punchy flute vamps as Frisell paints the margins with Harland, Leisz, and Rogers roiling the groove. "Monk's Mood" is rendered with lush nocturnal atmospherics as steel and sax share the melody. The pedal steel adds a touch of exotica, but Frisell's comping keeps it earthbound. "Ay Amor" is a reinvention of Cuban singer, songwriter, and pianist Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández (aka Bola de Nieve). Lloyd and company render it with breezy elegance, poignant emotion, and deep respect. Both Gábor Szabó's "Lady Gabor" and Lloyd's "Prayer" date to the early 1960s when the guitarist and saxophonist were with Chico Hamilton's group. On the former, dancing drums and bass meet spiky flute jabs that feed Frisell's biting garagey psychedelia. "Prayer" commences as a spectral ballad featuring Rogers' glorious arco playing before Lloyd's tenor carries it outside briefly to the tumult that exists beyond the margin. Frisell's shard-like chords and Leisz's atmospherics frame Harland's tense tom-tom pulse and muted cymbals. Over nearly nine minutes, it changes shapes several times before the tenor whispers the set out. While the singers on earlier Marvels albums offered ready accessibility, Tone Poem is perhaps more resonant given its consummate musicality and masterful tune curation.
|>This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa'<|
Tracklist :
1     Peace 3'12
Ornette Coleman    
2     Ramblin 4'59
Ornette Coleman
3     Anthem 6'19
Leonard Cohen    
4     Dismal Swamp 6'31
Charles Lloyd    
5     Tone Poem 9'04
Charles Lloyd    
6     Monk’s Mood 10'26
Thelonious Monk    
7     Ay Amor 10'05
Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández    
8     Lady Gabor 10'50
Gabor Szabo
9     Prayer 8'34
Charles Lloyd
Credits :
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Flute – Charles Lloyd