RABO DE NUBE - CHARLES LLOYD QUARTET
Poet Charles Simic’s verse for the liner notes of “Rabo de Nube,” Charles Lloyd’s latest CD, released the week of his 70th birthday, reads, “I hear someone whispering/’Without this music/ Life would be a mistake.”‘ In essence, this sums up Lloyd’s reflective jazz, presented here live from Switzerland in tandem with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland. Lloyd’s music is at once lyrical and vibrant, meditative and enthralling. His tenor sax combusts on the tumultuous “Prometheus”; his alto flute floats tenderly in his Booker Little homage, “Booker’s Garden”; and his taragato (a Hungarian folk clarinet) sets “Ramanujan” into dance motion. After the band romps through “Sweet Georgia Bright,” a Lloyd oldie from his 1964 recording debut, it eases into a sublime balladic rendition of the Silvio Rodriguez title track.
