Charles Lloyd: Hyperion with Higgins (2001) [lossless, scans]

The December 1999 sessions that produced The Water Is Wide yielded enough material for a second album. Hyperion With Higgins is the result, and its title reflects the sad fact that Billy Higgins, Lloyd's friend and soul mate and the session's drummer, passed away not long after the music was put to tape. The music's spiritual quality is heightened by the after-the-fact dedication. Quite unlike The Water Is Wide, Hyperion With Higgins is comprised entirely of Lloyd's original compositions, although the same lineup is featured: Lloyd, Higgins, John Abercrombie, Brad Mehldau, and Larry Grenadier. After a couple of fairly straightforward jazz pieces ("Dancing Waters, Big Sur to Bahia" and "Bharati"), the quintet delves into two longer works: "Secret Life of the Forbidden City" and the Coltrane-esque "Miss Jessye." They then romp through the title track, a spirited mid-tempo blues, before tackling the album's centerpiece: the five-part "Darkness on the Delta Suite," an ambitious, free-leaning melange of Eastern and rural blues connotations (with a brilliant solo interlude by Abercrombie). The last two pieces — "Dervish on the Glory B" and "The Caravan Moves On" — depart almost completely from jazz vernacular. The former recalls the upbeat, folk-like drone of the sunset portion of "Forest Flower," while the latter, featuring Lloyd on taragato, evokes not only the Middle Eastern desert, but also the inexorable march of time. Thus does a fitting homage to the departed Higgins conclude this exceptionally focused, all-original statement from Charles Lloyd.

Joshua Redman: Wish (1993) mp3 @ 320K

Joshua Redman's sophomore effort found him leading a piano-less quartet that also included guitar great Pat Metheny and half of Ornette Coleman's trailblazing late-'50s/early-'60s quartet: acoustic bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins. With such company, Redman could have delivered a strong avant-garde or free jazz album; Haden and Higgins had played an important role in jazz's avant-garde because of their association with Coleman, and Metheny had himself joined forces with Coleman on their thrilling Song X session of 1985. But Wish isn't avant-garde; instead, it's a mostly inside post-bop date that emphasizes the lyrical and the introspective. The musicians swing hard and fast on Charlie Parker's "Moose the Mooche," but things become very reflective on pieces like Redman's "The Undeserving Many" and Metheny's "We Had a Sister." One of the nice things about Redman is his ability to provide jazz interpretations of rock and R&B songs. While neo-conservatives ignore them and many NAC artists simply provide boring, predictable, note-for-note covers, Redman isn't afraid to dig into them and show their jazz potential. In Redman's hands, Stevie Wonder's "Make Sure You're Sure" becomes a haunting jazz-noir statement, while Eric Clapton's ballad "Tears in Heaven" is changed from moving pop/rock to moving pop-jazz. The latter, in fact, could be called "smooth jazz with substance." Some of bop's neo-conservatives disliked the fact that Redman was playing with two of Coleman's former sidemen and a fusion icon like Metheny, but then, Redman never claimed to be a purist. Although Wish isn't innovative, it's an appealing CD from an improviser who is willing to enter a variety of musical situations.

Charles Lloyd: The Water Is Wide (2000) mp3 @ 320K

Charles Lloyd was on a roll in the 1990s, each new CD offering some small surprises. On his new 2000 release, The Water Is Wide, Lloyd boasts a great lineup. Guitarist John Abercrombie and drummer Billy Higgins are back from Lloyd's Voice in the Night, but they are joined here by Brad Mehldau and the pianist's regular bassist, Larry Grenadier. The choice of material is also something of a surprise--Ellingtonia, such as "Black Butterfly," "Heaven," and "Lotus Blossom," the Scots folk song "The Water is Wide," Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia," and several appealing Lloyd originals. The mood throughout is meditative, gentle, and carefully considered. Lloyd's tenor is sometimes sensuous, sometimes stark, Mehldau and Abercrombie matching him with minimalist but elegant support. Only on "There is a Balm in Gilead" does the tempo increase, and only on Cecil McBee's composition "Song of Her" does an arrangement become obvious. Yet this is music of great charm, made more so by its understatement and the delicacy of Lloyd's phrasing and the distinctiveness of his tone. Records like this used to come from Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, but there aren't many saxophonists today who could pull off something so straightforward and unpretentious. --John F. Szwed