Gerald Clayton - Bells On Sand (April 1, 2022 Blue Note)

Pianist & composer Gerald Clayton explores the impact and abstraction of time on his ravishing 2nd Blue Note album Bells On Sand, which features contributions from mentor Charles Lloyd on saxophone, father John Clayton on bass, longtime friend and peer Justin Brown on drums, and new collaborator MARO on vocals. “Each musician on the record represents a different aspect of the axis of time and its shifting sands,” says Clayton. “My father and Charles Lloyd, who has been a mentor figure to me, reflect new permutations of my past, and the lineage of elders who have shaped my development; Justin Brown, being my contemporary and musical brother, represents my present; and MARO represents the future—she is part of the next generation, and points to a brand new collaboration.” The music includes new originals, pieces by Catalan composer Federico Mompou and Gerald’s uncle Jeff Clayton, as well as two stunning solo piano versions of the standard “My Ideal.”

If the digital album is purchased, you will receive the full album via email on April 1st, 2022.

Standard digital downloads are delivered as MP3 44.1khz/24-bit audio files.

Please note, digital downloads are only available in the U.S. 

1. Water’s Edge feat. John Clayton & Justin Brown

2. Elegia feat. John Clayton

3. Damunt de tu Només les Flors feat. MARO, John Clayton & Justin Brown

4. My Ideal 1

5. That Roy feat. Justin Brown

6. Rip feat. Justin Brown

7. Just A Dream feat. MARO

8. My Ideal 2

9. Peace Invocation feat. Charles Lloyd

10. This Is Music Where You’re Going My Friends

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Blue Note Records: 2021-2020 line-up announced for the Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series

Blue Note Records has announced the upcoming 2021-2022 line-up for the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Reissue Series, which will kick off March 12 with Charles Lloyd & The Marvels’ new album Tone Poem, the first-ever new release to be included in the series. Fittingly, it was Lloyd who first dubbed Harley the “Tone Poet.”

Other highlights include a first-ever vinyl release of pianist Andrew Hill’s brilliant 1969 album Passing Ships, which was rediscovered in the vaults by producer Michael Cuscuna and first released in 2003, and will come out May 7 paired with tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon’s expansive 1964 album One Flight Up. Katanga!, a rare gem from the Pacific Jazz catalog by saxophonist Curtis Amy and trumpeter Dupree Bolton, comes out on June 4 along with a first-time digital release of the album. The Tone Poet Vinyl Edition of Katanga! will include a new essay by Thomas Conrad that elucidates the story behind the album.

The Tone Poet series is produced by Joe Harley and features all-analog, 180g audiophile vinyl reissues that are mastered from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray of Cohearent Audio. Tone Poet vinyl is manufactured at RTI in Camarillo, California, and packaged in deluxe Stoughton Printing “Old Style” Gatefold Tip-On Jackets.

March 12, 2021

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels – Tone Poem (Blue Note, 2021) *mastered directly from the original 24/96 digital files*

May 7, 2021

Dexter Gordon – One Flight Up (Blue Note, 1964)

Andrew Hill – Passing Ships (Blue Note, 1969)

June 4, 2021

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers – The Witch Doctor (Blue Note, 1961)

Curtis Amy & Dupree Bolton – Katanga! (Pacific Jazz, 1963)

July 9, 2021

Sonny Clark – My Conception (Blue Note, 1959)

McCoy Tyner – Expansions (Blue Note, 1968)

August 6, 2021

Lee Konitz & Gerry Mulligan – Lee Konitz Plays With The Gerry Mulligan Quartet (Pacific Jazz, 1953)

Wayne Shorter – The All Seeing Eye (Blue Note, 1965)

September 10, 2021

Joe Pass – For Django (Pacific Jazz, 1964)

Stanley Turrentine – Rough ‘N Tumble (Blue Note, 1966)

October 8, 2021

Sonny Red – Out of the Blue (Blue Note, 1959-60)

Grant Green – The Latin Bit (Blue Note, 1962)

November 5, 2021

Hank Mobley – Curtain Call (Blue Note, 1957)

Jackie McLean – Tippin’ The Scales (Blue Note, 1962

December 3, 2021

Gerald Wilson – Moment of Truth (Pacific Jazz, 1962)

Freddie Hubbard – Breaking Point! (Blue Note, 1964)

January 7, 2022

Kenny Burrell – Kenny Burrell (Blue Note, 1956)

Grant Green – Feelin’ The Spirit (Blue Note, 1962)

February 4, 2022

Harold Vick – Steppin’ Out (Blue Note, 1963)

Bobby Hutcherson – Stick Up! (Blue Note, 1966)

March 4, 2022

Chet Baker & Art Pepper – Picture of Heath (Pacific Jazz, 1956)

Blue Mitchell – Bring It Home To Me (Blue Note, 1966)

April 1, 2022

Donald Byrd – At The Half Note Cafe, Vol. 1 (Blue Note, 1960)

ScoLoHoFo (Scofield-Lovano-Holland-Foster) – Oh! (Blue Note, 2002)

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams - Vanished Gardens (BLUE NOTE June 29, 2018)

On June 29, Charles Lloyd & The Marvels + Lucinda Williams will release Vanished Gardens, a transcendent new album that presents the fascinating collaboration between NEA Jazz Master saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd and acclaimed GRAMMY-winning singer and songwriter Lucinda Williams. Together they weave several threads of American music (Jazz, Blues, Americana, Country, and Rock) into a thrilling and uplifting new musical hybrid. The first single “We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around,” a new gospel-informed song written by Williams, is available today to stream or download. The Marvels are Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar and dobro, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. Vanished Gardens was produced by Lloyd, Dorothy Darr, and Don Was.

“A friend had turned me on to Lucinda when Car Wheels On a Gravel Road came out,” Lloyd recalls. “Lu has worked a lot with Bill Frisell and Greg Leisz, so a couple of years ago she came to one of my Marvels concerts at the Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. It was our first meeting and I sensed a deep Southern crossroads connection. Not long after that meeting she invited me to guest at her UCLA concert and then I invited her to guest at one of my concerts about a year later… It was clear we had something we wanted to explore together.”

Williams is featured on five of the ten tracks on Vanished Gardens, including expansive new versions of her well-known songs “Dust,” “Ventura” and “Unsuffer Me,” as well as a full-hearted interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Angel” that closes the album. Alternating with the vocal tracks are five sublime instrumental offerings including three new Lloyd originals and versions of Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood” and the Roberta Flack popularized song “Ballad of The Sad Young Men.”

“I’ve worked with a lot of poets,” Lloyd says, “especially during my Big Sur days; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Bukowski, Gary Snyder, Diane diPrima, Schyleen Qualls, Michael McClure, Bob Kaufman, James Dalessandro… putting words and music together. Lu is a poet. An authentic, American voice. Her sound is like an emotional barometer. A weather vane. Sometimes it swirls around in the tempest of a storm and sometimes it is sweet and pure as a Southern breeze carrying the intoxicating perfume of magnolia to you. As a poet, her imagery knocks me out.  She is a reporter of the human condition, of life on planet Earth.”

“We know each other better now and therefore we can travel more freely down certain paths,” says Lloyd, reflecting upon how The Marvels have evolved since their 2016 debut I Long To See You, which NPR called “music that evokes an uncommon state of grace.” That album featured guest vocals from both Willie Nelson and Norah Jones, but the collaborative nature the band has nurtured with Williams has led them to even greater heights of expression. “Having Lucinda on five of the tracks adds a new dimension to the overall experience,” says Lloyd, “for my listeners and for hers. I think on the new recording we were able to let go and plunge deeply into the sound.”

Lloyd celebrated his 80th birthday in March, and is marking the milestone throughout 2018 with special concerts, residencies, festival performances including the Newport Jazz Festival where Lloyd will be the Artist In Residence performing three sets with different bands. Following a triumphant performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Lloyd and Williams will appear together at the Playboy Jazz Festival (June 10), Newport Jazz Festival (August 5), Monterey Jazz Festival (September 23), Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater (December 14-15), and more. The NEA Jazz Master enters his ninth decade at a creative peak in what now stands as a mountainous and formidable career, continuing his lifelong artistic journey to explore the spiritual realms of wonder and beauty.

1. Defiant

2. Dust Words

3. Vanished Gardens

4. Ventura

5. Balled of The Sad Young Men

6. We’ve Come Too Far To Turn Around

7. Blues For Langston and LaRue

8. Unsuffer Me

9. Monk’s Mood

10. Angel Words

Charles Lloyd – Tour Dates:

June 3 – Healdsburg Jazz Festival – Healdsburg, CA – Charles Lloyd & Friends

June 10 – Playboy Jazz Festival – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

June 27 – Leopolis Jazz Festival – Lviv, Ukraine – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

June 28 – Krakow Summer Jazz Festival – Krakow, Poland – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

June 30 – Porgy & Bess – Vienna, Austria – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 1 – MOM – Budapest, Hungary – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Mikis Lucaks

July 3 – Associazione Cuturale Musicale – Bari, Italy – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 5 – New Morning – Paris, France – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 6 – Vijazz – Vilafranca del Penedes, Spain – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 7 – Noches Botanicos – Madrid, Spain – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 9 – Piazza Farinata degli Uberti – Empoli, Italy – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 11 – Copenhagen Jazz Festival – Copenhagen, Denmark – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

July 13 – North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

August 3 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Sangam

August 4 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Charles Lloyd New Quartet

August 5 – Newport Jazz Festival – Newport, RI – Charles Lloyd & Friends with Lucinda Williams

September 21 – Stanford Live – Palo Alto, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

September 23 – Monterey Jazz Festival – Monterey, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

September 28 – Germantown Performing Arts Center – Memphis, TN – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels

December 4 – Coates Chapel @ Southwest School of Art – San Antonio, TX – Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan

December 6 – Zellerbach @ UC Berkeley – Berkeley, CA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

December 8 – Michigan Theater – Ann Arbor, MI – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

December 10 – Carolina Theater – Durham, NC – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

December 14 – Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

December 15 – Rose Theater @ Jazz at Lincoln Center – New York, NY – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

December 16 – Berklee Theater – Boston, MA – Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with Lucinda Williams

CHICK COREA AND CHARLES LLOYD LEAD AWARD-WINNING LINE-UP FOR 2018 SAILING OF BLUE NOTE AT SEA

CHICK COREA AND CHARLES LLOYD LEAD AWARD-WINNING LINE-UP FOR 2018 SAILING OF BLUE NOTE AT SEA

Leslie Odom, Jr. (Hamilton) Also Joins the Line-up of Grammy and Tony Award Winning Artists and NEA Jazz Masters

2017 marked the initial sailing of Blue Note at Sea, a nautical musical collaboration between Blue Note Records, Blue Note Jazz Clubs and Entertainment Cruise Productions.  Don Was, president of Blue Note Records and a three time Grammy winning producer has called this three-way production team "the dream team of jazz at sea."  With his expertise and direction, the production and programming savvy offered by Steven Bensusan and his team at Blue Note Jazz Clubs and the 17 years of jazz cruises produced by Entertainment Cruise Productions, Was' description seems apt.

The 2018 cruise roster is nearly finalized and includes winners of 48 Grammys and 2 Tony Awards.  The cruise also features 4 NEA Jazz Masters (the highest award in jazz), all of whom are sailing on Blue Note at Sea for the first time.


These four illustrious performers are among the most celebrated jazz artists of our time: 22-time Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master Chick Corea, NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd, triple Grammy-winner and Dee Dee Bridgewater, and Dr. Lonnie Smith.

Legendary saxophonist (and Blue Note recording artist) Charles Lloyd will join the cruise in St. Thomas with his band The Marvels - Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland. Bridgewater, who, in addition to her three Grammys, has earned a Tony award, will be backed by her own band as well. Smith, a Hammond B-3 guru, has been featured on over seventy albums, and has recorded and performed with a virtual "Who's Who" of the greatest jazz, blues and R&B giants in the industry. Both Bridgewater and Smith will be joining the ranks of NEA Jazz Masters in 2017.

Bridgewater is not the only Tony Award-winner who will be performing for audiences on the Celebrity Summit next February. Leslie Odom, Jr., best known for his role as Aaron Burr in the Broadway smash hit Hamilton, for which he took home both a Tony (for Best Actor in a Musical) and a Grammy (for Best Musical Theater Album), is set to bring his jazz chops to the forefront when he performs with his band on the cruise. The New York Times describes Odom's style as "tender jazz vocals with flashes of adult-contemporary R&B."

Blue Note at Sea '18 will again be hosted by multi-Grammy winning bassist Marcus Miller. Other Grammy-winning artists who will be returning are Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway and David Sanborn. While Glasper and Sanborn will perform in the same configurations as they did on Blue Note at Sea's inaugural sailing, five time Grammy winner Hathaway will bring her own band on board this time out.  The three bands feature 11 top jazz musicians, all of whom will be performing in other configurations and groups during the cruise.

The multi-Grammy winning pianist Robert Glasper will also be appearing with the Blue Note All Stars, an incredible sextet of young visionaries who first formed in 2014 to celebrate Blue Note's 75th Anniversary. The band features Glasper along with his label-mates Ambrose Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, Marcus Strickland, Derrick Hodge and Kendrick Scott.

Both Don Was and Steven Bensusan will also participate on the cruise. Was will emcee several events and will interview many of the performers, as he did on the 2017 sailing.  Bensusan will host the Blue Note Jazz Club at Sea, a gorgeous late night venue that offers cabaret style seating in the tradition of his many Blue Note Jazz Clubs.

Featuring the most highly respected and renowned contemporary jazz performers in the world, Blue Note at Sea is a collaboration among Blue Note Jazz Clubs, Blue Note Records, and Entertainment Cruise Productions.  From stunning main shows to their signature Night Music events to Late, Late Night shows and jam sessions, Blue Note at Sea defines what is new and hip in the world of jazz while also retaining and respecting those aspects of the genre that have made jazz one of the true enduring musical styles around the world. 

Blue Note at Sea will sail on Celebrity Summit from February 3 - 10, 2018, departing from Ft. Lauderdale, with ports of call in San Juan, St. Thomas, Coco Cay (Bahamas) and Labadee (Haiti).  For more information about the cruise program, go to www.bluenoteatsea.com.

About Entertainment Cruise Productions, LLC

Entertainment Cruise Productions is the world leader in live entertainment at sea. Since 2001, Entertainment Cruise Productions, through its various programs, has produced more than 70 full ship charters, such as Playboy Jazz Cruise, The Elvis Cruise, North Sea Jazz Cruise, Celtic Thunder Cruise, NASCAR The Cruise, and The Gospel Music Cruise. Sailing in 2018 along with The Jazz Cruise are The Smooth Jazz Cruise, Blue Note at Sea, The 80s Cruise and Star Trek: The Cruise. 

Entertainment Cruise Productions is dedicated to providing the finest music and entertainment cruise experience in the world.

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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