CHARLES LLOYD NEW QUARTET

Charles Lloyd has always led exceptional bands, and this is one of the finest. Following on from the live “Rabo de Nube” which won both the Readers and Critics Polls of Jazz Times, here is a studio album from the quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland. Familiar material is reappraised and transformed in this session recorded in California in December 2009. Tracks include new versions of “Desolation Sound”, “Go Down Moses”, “Lift Every Voice”, and “The Water is Wide”. There are also a couple of superb Thelonious Monk covers, “Ruby, My Dear” and “Monks Mood” and a beautiful, free arrangement of the Beach Boys’ “Caroline No”. Throughout, the interaction between piano, bass and drums is fleet and fluid: Lloyd’s saxophones float poetically above it.