Lloyd Charles, *15 March 1938 Memphis (Tennessee), American tenor saxophonist and jazz flautist. He began playing the saxophone in 1948. Initially, he performed in the rhythm and blues (R&B) bands of B.B. King and B. Bland. In 1956, he began studying composition at the University of South Carolina, and after graduating, he worked as a music teacher while perfecting his flute playing. From 1961 to 1964, he played with C. Hamilton, and from 1964 to 1965, he gained international recognition in C. Adderley’s sextet. In 1966, he formed his own quartet (K. Jarrett – piano, R. McClure – double bass and J. DeJohnette – drums), which proved to be the best band of his entire career and one of the most interesting jazz groups of the 1960s (albums Forest Flower, 1966; Love In, 1967). With this quartet, he visited Asia-Pacific region, the USSR and Europe, among other places; he performed in Poland in 1967 during the Jazz Jamboree. In 1969, he appeared in E. Sherman’s documentary film Charles Lloyd. Journey Within. In the 1970s, due to personal and artistic problems, he withdrew from musical life. He returned to the stage at the urging of French pianist M. Petrucciani, with whom (and P. Danielsson) he performed at the Montreux Festival in 1982. In 1988, he formed a band with B. Stenson, P. Danielsson and J. Christensen, with whom he recorded Fish Out Of Water (1989), the first in a series of over a dozen albums for ECM. He collaborated with M. Eicher’s company until 2013; two years later, he joined Blue Note, for which he continues to record to this day.
In 2012, the Jazztopad festival in Wrocław commissioned Lloyd to compose Wild Man Dance Suite, which was performed during the next edition of the event with the participation of M. Wasilewski’s band. The artist also gave concerts in Warsaw (2016) and Krakow (2018). In 2020, he released his album 8: Kindred Spirits, which was highly praised by critics.
In the beginning, Lloyd’s style was influenced by C. Hawkins, L. Young and B. Webster, but later he became fascinated with the music of J. Coltrane and S. Rollins. His greatest significance came in the 1960s; he was one of the few jazz musicians who, in the era of rock’s dominance, managed to connect with a young audience while also inspiring the artists of the nascent fusion movement. Since the 1990s, his music has been a synthesis of tradition and modernity; Lloyd is not averse to experimentation and combining different genres of jazz with ethnic music.
