John Fordham 

Charles Lloyd: Manhattan Stories review – snapshot of a powerful jazz foursome

The American saxophonist’s recording from 1965, with a band including Gabor Szabo, Ron Carter and Pete La Roca, is an absorbing document of the time, writes John Fordham
  
  

Charles Lloyd, saxophonist
Early Coltrane mode … Charles Lloyd, saxophonist. Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns via Getty Images Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns via Getty Images

At 74, American saxophonist Charles Lloyd stands more creatively tall and publically esteemed than at any time since his midlife comeback after a two-decade sabbatical. These two New York shows are from his first celebrity years, in 1965, with Hungarian guitarist Gábor Szabó

(Lloyd’s former partner in Chico Hamilton’s band), Miles Davis bassist Ron Carter, and the hard-hitting former Sonny Rollins drummer Pete La Roca. Lloyd’s enduring interest in Hungarian music probably began with Szabó, and the guitarist’s brittle, jangling sound often resembles that of a cimbalom or dulcimer on these six long tracks. The leader is firmly locked into early Coltrane mode – though the lean, plaintive sound to come is glimpsed here and there – and there’s more bumpy, conversational and peppery free-blowing than those used to Lloyd’s spare, reflective current music might warm to. But two versions of Szabó’s Lady Gabor, with its pulsing guitar hook and whooshing flute lines, the Coltraneish mid-tempo Slug’s Blues, and Lloyd’s famous and sombrely funky Dream Weaver make this both an absorbing document and a snapshot of a powerful foursome visiting the edges.

 

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