Recording of June 2024: Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Lloyd, tenor & alto saxophone, bass & alto flute; Jason Moran, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass; Brian Blade, drums, percussion
Blue Note 00602458167962 (reviewed as 24/96 FLAC; accessible on CD, digital, LP). 2024. Dorothy Darr, Lloyd, Joe Harley, prods.; Dom Camardella, Kevin Gray, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow was launched by Blue Note Records on March 15, 2024, which was Charles Lloyd’s 86th birthday. It is Lloyd’s forty seventh album as a frontrunnerthe primary was Discovery!, on Columbia Records, in 1964how about that! With a operating time one minute over an hour and a half, pressed on two LPs, this album is a major addition to Lloyd’s era-traversing catalog. Of the album’s 15 tracks, 13 are Charles Lloyd compositions, cut up between new items and new preparations of older works.

The quartet Lloyd leads right here consists of pianist Jason Moran and bassist Larry Grenadier, each of whom Lloyd has collaborated with earlier than, on stage and on file. The new member is drummer Brian Blade. In his album notes, Charles mentions desirous to get this group collectively as early as 2020. The plan lastly got here to fruition on the Santa Barbara Sound Design studio, the place recording came about in March 2023.

Santa Barbara has been Lloyd’s hometown for a few years, and he has recorded earlier than at engineer/proprietor Dom Camardella’s studio there. Joe "Tone Poet" Harley was available to assist produce the periods, sharing producing credit with Lloyd and his spouse, Dorothy Darr. It was Lloyd who assigned Joe the "Tone Poet" nickname years in the past; Harley is so credited on prior Lloyd recordings.

In different phrases, recording tech and musicians had been all a part of the identical residence crew, often a plus for each sound and music.

Let’s take into account the sound first. It’s fabulous! Drums occupy the left half of the stage, bass is centered, Lloyd’s horns are both centered or barely to the appropriate. Piano pretty arduous proper. The selection and high quality of drum and percussion sounds is top-of-the-class wonderful, multimiked in the primary studio room. The detailed drum sound helps Blade’s large number of approaches to time on this music, from locked-down grooves to fully aleatoric. The acoustic bass is superbly balanced, capturing delicate plucking transients and highly effective vamps that propel the tunes ahead. The album notes don’t embrace tech data on the piano, apart from that it was a Steinway; it feels like a wonderful one.

The focus of the combo, as you’ll count on, is on Lloyd’s saxes and flutes. The sound on these is simply pretty: by no means abrasive, even when Charles goes into full-tilt mode. I used to be particularly having fun with the timbre of the flutes, which Lloyd makes use of virtually as a lot as his saxes on this album, after I observed from the credit that solely bass and alto flute had been used; each are decrease than the conventional C-Flute, giving darker and gentler sounds than what you typically hear in jazz. Throughout the album, Charles’s tenor sax produces an exquisite, robust, relaxed sound, which helps convey the deep religious intent of the music. Lloyd’s horn sounds are vocal in nature and deeply emotional.

As you’d count on, the LPs had been mastered by Kevin Gray. I’m advised Charles attended the session and liked what he was listening to. My copy of the vinyl set had extra floor noise than I would love, however the high quality of the sound is exceptionally wonderful. The 24/96 digital model, which was constituted of the identical grasp with out alteration, is great, too, with out the floor noise. For Blue Note recordings, Gray runs a digital copy on the similar time he bodily cuts the lacquers; that digital copy turns into the brand new digital grasp for streaming, downloads, and CD. It’s a very parallel path.

Joe Harley advised me, "It was crystal clear from the primary day of recording that some very particular magic was taking place." Listen to the deep soul and nature imagery on "The Water Is Rising," or the dual items that bookend the album (an thought Lloyd credit to his spouse), "Defiant, Tender Warrior" and "Defiant, Reprise; Homeward Dove." "Booker’s Garden" is a tribute to Lloyd’s childhood buddy from Memphis, trumpeter Booker Little, who died manner earlier than his time at age 23. On "The Ghost of Lady Day," Lloyd moans and shrieks; a really wide selection of musical photos is painted right here. The title monitor, "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow," finds Charles in a swinging groovethen Moran kicks it into an atonal frenzy, then settles in to a Jarrett-style vamp. Which is suitable; after I first heard Charles Lloyd carry out, I used to be nonetheless in highschool, and a younger Keith Jarrett was on the piano.

A couple of days after the discharge of this album, I used to be capable of converse with Charles Lloyd briefly, and I requested him if this album felt particular. "It does certainly," he answered.Sasha Matson

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May 14, 2024 at 02:40PM