In these days of the B-movie blues it would be easy to be cynical about the return of the Kaftan Kid – too easy, and on the strength of this record, wrong. If all the mid-sixties talk of Lloyd as the successor to Coltrane and Rollins absurdly overrated him, the purist niggling about his West Coast, flower-power successes drew attention away from the very reasonable level and breadth of much of his work, and the collective power of the great quartet with Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette. Lloyd’s current group is not on that level but it is a very good group nonetheless, which is amply demonstrated in this well-balanced live set from Copenhagen’s 1983 Jazz Festival.
On several tracks, the rhythm section is called upon to deliver shifting modal illusions of time regained, most obviously in Lotus Land where the nasal invocations of Lloyd’s Chinese oboe evoke powerfully precise memories of Coltrane, and in Night Blooming Jasmine, which moves from heart-on-sleeve pedal point to some tough ostinato bass and really steamy tenor. Elsewhere, ballads, blues and Latin are on display, with Petrucciani sounding happier and more intelligently adventurous on the soulful Lady Day and the sparkling El Encanto than in his Tatumesque outing on Third Floor Richard. This is a light, finger-popping blues which features guest McFerrin’s beboppish scat and some fine unison and contrapuntal ideas from flute and bass.
Nothing on the record does much to indicate that Lloyd has moved on conceptually since those heady days of sixties success, but then, some types of sixties revivalism are worth more than that too-easy sneer.
Discography
Lotus Lane (To Thakur And Trane); Lady Day; El Encanto (22.50) – Third Floor Richard; Night Blooming Jasmine (22.32)
Charles Lloyd (ts/fl/ch oboe); Michael Petrucciani (p); Palle Danielsson (b); Son Ship Theus (d); plus Bobby McFerrin (vcl) on Third Floor Richard. Copenhagen, 11/7/83.
(Blue Note BT 85104)
