Jazz Great Charles Lloyd Brings His Quartet Home to Santa Barbara

To describe the experience of a Charles Lloyd concert in two words, the recently announced slogan of the 2028 L.A. Olympics seems highly appropriate: “Stars Align.”

As a leader of jazz quartets, the 88-year-old Lloyd is famously collaborative. He will be making music at the Lobero Theatre for the 21st time on November 12, performing on tenor saxophone and alto flute along with guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Kweku Sumbry.

“I guess time is marching, but it feels eternal to me,” Lloyd said in an interview last week. “I’m still blessed with eternal companions, my musicians that play with me.”

Those musicians vary from concert to concert, but they reliably find a way to form beautiful connections with Lloyd. Those connections can bring the march of time to a standstill in moments of musical bliss.

Such was the case on September 27 at the Monterey Jazz Festival when Lloyd — aligned with Grenadier, pianist Gerald Clayton, and drummer Brian Blade — concluded his set by performing “Forest Flower,” the fetching two-part (“Sunrise/Sunset”) composition that brought him fame 60 years earlier on that same stage. The live recording was a bestseller.

“Young men with an urgent message,” Lloyd said of the 1966 quartet that included Keith Jarrett on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. “Now we’re elders, at least I’m an elder, with more inner quietude. It was very quiet the way we started. It was a different forest flower. The beauty is that it was so organic.”

Lloyd strives for originality, creating his own voice from myriad influences, including the swing of Duke Ellington and the spirituality of John Coltrane.

“I have to keep making music,” he said. “Going around the globe, sharing music with people, always trying to be better at what I do. I keep going forward, that’s my mantra. It’s keeping me younger than springtime.”

Consider his itinerary of concerts after he turned 88 last March: Healdsburg in Northern California, Montreal, Budapest, Getxo (Spain), Umbria (Italy), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Ghent (Belgium), then back to the U.S. in Newport (R.I.), and Monterey.

He need only ride down the hill from his pastoral residence in Montecito for next week’s concert at the Lobero. That will launch his fall tour, with appearances in Minneapolis, New York, and Newark (N.J.). Then it’s off to a festival in Copenhagen.

Lloyd cherishes the opportunity to play in his adopted hometown. “Santa Barbara’s a special place,” he said. “Sages and seers come through here. I thought I’d go back to New York, but something keeps me here. It’s sacred land.”

He shares a healthy lifestyle with his wife Dorothy Darr, an artist herself. They grow food and flowers on the land, but there is no promise that Lloyd will lead the band into “Forest Flower” next week.

“I didn’t want to be known as a one-hit wonder kind of thing,” he said. “I have so many other recordings. However, with what happened in Monterey — it was sacred, that was church up there. We loved playing it this time.”

The new band, well versed in improvisation, will be ready to go exploring next week. “It’s not written on paper,” Lloyd said. “Where you go is a great mystery. It’s written in the stars…. I used to play with Cannonball Adderley, and a lady wanted a playlist. He said, ‘If we don’t know what we’re gonna play, we sure can’t tell you.’ I’m kind of in that school.”

Frisell, 75, has previously displayed empathetic chops with Lloyd. “He’s quiet, deep, and understanding,” Lloyd said. (Interestingly, an early recording of “Forest Flower,” in 1963, featured another guitarist, Gabor Szabo.)

Lloyd said Grenadier, 60, “has become my favorite bassist. He’s reminiscent of Albert Stinson, so strong, so lyrical.” (Stinson also played on the 1963 recording.) Grenadier was the bassist at Lloyd’s 85th birthday concert in Santa Barbara that led to the acclaimed album The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow.

Sumbry, 29, joined Lloyd’s quartets in Europe this year, infusing the band with youthful energy.

“I’m honored to be home with these musicians,” Lloyd said. “I hope the citizens will come out, I hope some healing goes down and we can touch each other’s hearts. I’m still a tender warrior for peace. I still want to see a better world where all God’s children can sing and dance.”

Charles Lloyd Quartet, Lobero Theatre (33 E. Canon Perdido St.), November 12, 7:30 p.m., See lobero.org/events/charles-lloyd.