Charles Lloyd
b. 15 March 1939, Memphis, Tennessee. Lloyd was self-taught on tenor saxophone, which he played in his high school band. He gained a Masters Degree at the University of Southern California and became a music teacher at Dorsey High in Los Angeles. In October 1960, he joined the Chico Hamilton Quintet where he played flute, alto and clarinet as well as tenor, and soon became the band's musical director. In January 1964, he joined the Cannonball Adderley Sextet, where he stayed until forming his own quartet with guitarist Gabor Szabo, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams in July 1965. Soon Szabo was replaced by pianist Keith Jarrett and Carter and Williams returned to the Miles Davis group. At the start of 1966 Cecil McBee came in on bass (he was replaced by Ron McClure in 1967), Jack DeJohnette took the drum chair and the stage was set for a jazz phenomenon. Manager George Avakian decided to market the band in the same way he would a rock group, and the tactic paid off. In modern jazz terms the Quartet was hugely successful, playing to massive rock audiences at the Fillmore Stadium in San Francisco and becoming the first American band to appear in a Soviet festival. While the public and musicians such as Miles Davis and Ian Carr admired the band, the critics were predictably cynical, criticizing the musicians’ clothes, hair styles and hippy attitudes but ignoring the basic virtues of the music itself, which included rhythmic vitality, a sound foundation in bop and the blues, and Lloyd's surging and emotionally affecting tenor sound. In due course his public looked elsewhere and, eventually, Lloyd left music to pursue his interest in philosophy and meditation, although during this period he did work and record with the Beach Boys (SURF'S UP) as a result of his friendship with Mike Love. In the early '80s he edged back onto the jazz scene, notably with a Montreux Festival performance featuring Michel Petrucciani, and he began to tour again with a quartet containing Palle Danielson and Jon Christensen. During his semi-retirement his flute playing had become stronger whilst his tenor took on some of the ethereal quality his flute formerly had.