Charles Lloyd's 2024 musical offering, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, is a majestic double album of new studio recordings from the legendary saxophonist which will be released on March 15, 2024, Lloyd's 86th birthday. One of the most significant musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries, Lloyd remains at the peak of his powers in the company of a newly assembled quartet of four distinctive voices with the NEA Jazz Master joined by pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade.

When tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd turned 80, he made sure to mark the occasion with an epic concert at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre. His youthful quintet Kindred Spirits is anchored by his longstanding New Quartet rhythm section (bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland), but with them are pianist Gerald Clayton and guitarist Julian Lage, both newer arrivals to the Lloyd universe and major leaders in their own right. Clayton imaginatively inhabits a space once filled by his predecessor, Jason Moran, while Lage (playing a Telecaster) follows in a line of acclaimed Lloyd guitar sidemen (John Abercrombie, Bill Frisell, and Gabor Szabo). Playing tried-and-true Lloyd repertoire beginning with “Dream Weaver,” the title track of his first Atlantic LP from ’66, and ending with the abstract, explosive “Part 5, Ruminations,” Kindred Spirits captures the essence of Lloyd’s mystical jazz vision, and gives it new, forward-thinking shape as well.

Trios: Sacred Thread is the third and final album in Charles Lloyd's Trio of Trios project in 2022. Its releases offer three different triads in concert settings, its players recruited from the saxophonist's vast stable of collaborators. Trios: Chapel, with guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan, appeared in June offering jazz and Latin standards and Lloyd compositions dating back to the early 1960s. Trios: Ocean, with guitarist Anthony Wilson and pianist Gerald Clayton, followed in September. Its program was composed of four originals offered as vehicles for lengthy improvisation.
Trios: Sacred Thread places the saxophonist/composer in the company of guitarist Julian Lage and Indian percussionist/vocalist Zakir Hussain…

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.

In concert, the Charles Lloyd Quartet took care of business, so it's fortunate to have this reissue bringing back two of the group's live recordings: a 1968 date from Town Hall in New York and a 1967 concert from a jazz festival in Estonia. The two dates flow together as a unified document of the quartet in its prime. Soundtrack opens with "Sombrero Sam," an expansive piece of soul-jazz with a Keith Jarrett deconstruction of a Joe Zawinul-style line (circa Zawinul's time with Cannonball Adderley). This sets up the leader for a funky excursion on flute. A breathy falsetto soliloquy from Lloyd on tenor then segues perfectly into a dynamic performance of his "Forest Flower." "Voice in the Night" from the original Atlantic release is not included on the reissue…

This 1998 reissue lets Charles Lloyd's music of the late '60s transcend its erstwhile, hippie era, Coltrane-lite cachet and come into its own as the expression of an expansive musical vision by a quartet of formidable players. Straddling the threshold to the avant-garde, the music doesn't so much defy categorization as dispense with the need for it. Folk themes, Eastern influences, blues, modal hard bop, and impressionistic passages meld seamlessly into a unique, cohesive musical conception. The sprawling 75-minute CD compiles two concert releases: a 1967 date at New York's Fillmore East and a 1968 concert in Oslo, Norway…