An octogenarian, soon to be a nonagenarian, playing the tenor saxophone and the flute. Usually, when you attend a concert by a musician of that age, you find yourself reflecting on his glorious past, since you’re standing before a living legend—or at the very least, a respected artist. Usually, the image you have of him far outweighs the actual quality of his performance. That’s what I expected from Charles Lloyd on Saturday night. And I was wrong.
At 88, the American musician would normally have seen his skills seriously decline. His sound would have grown thinner, his articulation noticeably less precise than it once was, and his ideas less sharp, prone to repetition. Surprisingly, Charles Lloyd manages to defy the predictions and the prejudice of ageism. Of course, he’s not at the level he once was, but he admirably succeeds in performing superb improvised music without revealing anything that might suggest his own decline or even his impending demise.
With his back barely hunched, Charles Lloyd remains standing for a long time; he looks 20 years younger as he paces, observes, listens, and plays. The consistently rich, rounded tone of his tenor sax is punctuated by sparkles that give it a unique texture, especially in the slow sections of his performances. His phrasing is still there on the saxophone, just as it is on the flute, from which he still draws a decent sound.
On slow or medium tempos, a long life comes to expression here with the sure touch we’ve come to expect from this legendary jazz hippie, accompanied on Saturday by James Francies on piano, Harish Raghavan on double bass, and Kwebu Sumbry on drums. My only reservation is Francies’ extremely powerful style, which is somewhat reminiscent of McCoy Tyner, whereas the pianists recently associated with Charles Lloyd—Jason Moran and Gerald Clayton—seem to me to be a better fit for their venerable employer’s Zen-like and contemplative approach.
Still, it was beautiful overall, especially given the youthful vigour of a musician we were there to admire without expecting anything spectacular from him. Against all odds, it was larger than life.
