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Charles Lloyd, Enjoying the Comforts and Poetics of Home, at the Lobero

Courtesy Peggy Grossman
For the 20th concert in his hometown venue of choice, the Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara-based elder jazz statesman Charles Lloyd eased into the something comfortable of a particularly empathetic new threesome, the bass-less and drum-less Delta Trio, with his ever-versatile and long-standing ally Jason Moran on piano and guitarist Marvin Sewell—one of jazz’s greatest 'talents deserving wider recognition.'
Josef Woodard
Charles Lloyd
saxophoneb.1938
For the 20th time in the past few decades, Lloyd settled into the familiar room on March 14, one day before his birthday. Past Lobero shows have included a momentous 80th birthday which was recorded live for his 8: Kindred Spirits (Live from the Lobero) album on Blue Note. Another important Lloyd/Lobero evening occurred in 2008, when Lloyd made a live recording of his first meeting with the now belated tabla master

Zakir Hussain
tablas1951 - 2024

Eric Harland
drumsb.1976
In live shows, Lloyd mostly tends to lean on a familiar songbook (while generally avoiding his best-known tune, "Forest Flower," for some reason) but presented in shifting instrumental contexts. This time out, Lloyd eased into the something comfortable of a particularly empathetic new threesome, the bass-less and drum-less Delta Trio, with his ever-versatile and long-standing ally

Jason Moran
pianob.1975

Marvin Sewell
guitarThis is not to mention Sewell's natural ken for slipping into tasteful but undeniably bluesy "Delta-phonic" patois, tapping into slide guitar and a nod to "Come On in My Kitchen" in mid-set. Lloyd summoned up his own blues-tinged lineage (he played with

Bobby Blue Bland
vocals1930 - 2013

Howlin' Wolf
vocals1910 - 1976

B.B. King
guitar, electric1925 - 2015

John Coltrane
saxophone1926 - 1967
An understated atmosphere continued into the waltz "Evanstide, Where Lotus Bloom" from Lloyd's 1995 ECM album All My Relations, but nudged upward into a rattled intensity for "Part 5 Ruminations," from 8: Kindred Spirits, on which Lloyd's earlier flotational sax tone and lines grew more edgy, restless and more definitively Coltrane-tinged. Other echoes of past Lobero shows emerged during the concert, as when Lloyd called up the rumbling and rambling "Ghost of Lady Day"recorded on last year's album The Sky Will Still be There Tomorrow, and featuring the rhythm section of Moran, bassist

Larry Grenadier
bass, acousticb.1966

Brian Blade
drumsb.1970
Also heard in his Lobero @ 80 concert and album, the sweetly melancholic Mexican folk song "La Llorona" served as a graceful set-closing vehicle for Moran's probing palette and the imploring balladic persona of Lloyd's musical voice.
To open the encore portion of the evening, Lloyd took brief detours from his mainstay tenor sax to perform on instruments long associated with his concerts, the Hungarian tárogató reed instrument on "Nachekita's Lament," and some maraca action flexed into the piano microphones during Moran's solo. Another aspect of the Lloyd ethos, his Vedantic spiritual practice, emerged as he recited from memory from the Bhagavad-Gita, in Christopher Isherwood's celebrated translation.
Strictly American turf was just around the corner, though, as Lloyd closed out a contemplative and full musical evening to his revised treatment of the Leonard Berstein/Stephen Sondheim ballad "Somewhere." Via Lloyd's characteristic vocal and lyrical style of phrasing and gently altering melodies, especially when dealing with such familiar terrain as Beach Boys / Brian Wilson songs and standards, our mind's ear detected found comfort in the saxophonist's implied lyric: "there's a place for us / somewhere a place for us."
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Live Review
charles lloyd
Josef Woodard
United States
California
Zakir Hussain
Eric Harland
Dorothy Darr
jason moran
Marvin Sewell
Bobby "Blue" Bland
Howlin' Wolf
BB King
James Weldon Johnson
John Coltrane
Larry Grenadier
Brian Blade
Christopher Isherwood
Leonard Berstein
Stephen Sondheim
Beach Boys
Brian Wilson
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