Charles Lloyd and the Marvels - I Long to See You (2016)

Source & Label: Blue Note

In 2015, iconic saxophonist Charles Lloyd continued his innovative trajectory into the upper spheres of jazz and the spiritual realms of wonder and beauty. He basked in a banner year that included receiving the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters honor and marking a triumphant return to Blue Note Records with his remarkable live album Wild Man Dance. While talking about his “call of the wild” at the time, Lloyd said, “I am still searching to find the sound. It is my path. I call myself a ‘sound seeker.’ The deeper I dive into the ocean of sound, I find there is still deeper and further to go.”
The creative dive progresses on Lloyd’s superlative Blue Note follow-up, I Long to See You, a recording of pristine beauty, refined elegance, passionate emotion and spiritual sensitivity. It features a marvelous new lineup of voices who deliver a sumptuous collection of ten songs that range from traditional hymns to anti-war folk protests to re-envisioned originals that appeared on his earlier recordings. Lloyd has enlisted the rhythmic core of his stalwart New Quartet ensemble—bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland—and invited top-tier collaborators including guitarist extraordinaire Bill Frisell and stellar pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz. Appropriately Lloyd has dubbed the quintet The Marvels. In addition, I Long to See You spotlights two guest vocalists: Willie Nelson and Norah Jones because as Lloyd says, ‘I love the voice.’” As for the meaning of the title, Lloyd succinctly explains: “In the reservoir of my heart, there has always been this deep longing.”
The seed for the new project was planted in 2013 when Lloyd invited Frisell to perform with him at UCLA’s Royce Hall. They had met earlier that year when they shared a stage, and Lloyd says, “We made a connection. I knew that we were moving toward the sound. Bill is a great sensitive and very intuitive. When he was a kid in Denver, he told me he was influenced by my first band with Jack DeJohnette and Keith Jarrett. He said that music opened his imagination to a wide spectrum of new possibilities. We don't need to say much when we get together—it’s all expressed in the music, in the sound, the feeling.”  Read more...

01 Masters Of War
02 Of Course, Of Course
03 La Llorona
04 Shenandoah
05 Sombrero Sam
06 All My Trials
07 Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream [feat. Willie Nelson]
08 Abide With Me
09 You Are So Beautiful [feat. Norah Jones]
10 Barche Lamsel

Charles Lloyd
Bill Frisell
Greg Leisz
Reuben Rogers
Eric Harland
Norah Jones #9
Willie Nelson #7

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