Sunday, April 24, 2005

I don't know how I had missed Charles Lloyd. Yesterday, his new ECM release Jumping the Creek caught my eye at AKA Music in their new, spacious 2nd Street location. I've not stopped listening to it since, starting with the opening variations on Brel's Ne Me Quite Pas. It revives and rebuilds ideas from bebop and free jazz, but in a unique, tight, balanced, incredibly dynamic way. Wow. Great playing by Lloyd and his outstanding ensemble: Gerin Allen (piano), Robert Hurst (bass), and Eric Harland (drums). For example, Canon Perdido brings out mind-boggling creativity from Harland and subtle rhythms from Hurst. In the title track, Allen goes beyond anything I've heard in jazz piano in a long time. 1:51:43 PM