Charles Lloyd & The Marvels
Tone Poem
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed 2021 2lp gatefold audiophile remastered vinyl reissue, for Blue Note's Tone Poet series. Recorded In Los Angeles, Santa Barbara And Madrid, Spain. "Tone Poem is the third album by saxophonist Charles Lloyd's Americana jazz quintet the Marvels -- guitarist Bill Frisell, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland. Cut over several years in California studios and from a Madrid stage, it comprises six covers and three Lloyd originals. The album marks the first time the band have recorded without singers. At 82, Lloyd is a master of the form who knows what he wants from his sidemen and how to get it.

Reinventions of two Ornette Coleman classics introduce the set. The composer's bluesy feel comes through immediately in "Peace" as Leisz, Frisell, and Lloyd engage its relaxed, syncopated melody even more slowly than on the original. Lloyd's solo underscores the Middle Eastern modalism in Coleman's tags as the string players extrapolate on the blues. On "Ramblin'," Leisz's pedal steel choogles, emulating a train (perhaps the Midnight Flyer out of Lloyd's native Memphis). The saxophonist adds a few notes from American folk song "Shortnin' Bread" before grabbing on to Coleman's mutant bop head. Frisell's playing is all sparking blues and shuffling alongside Leisz's. Harland's martial rim shots could lead a NOLA second line parade as the jam departs for open spaces. Songwriter Leonard Cohen loved and celebrated traditional country music -- he often carried a copy of Hank Williams' collected lyrics on tour. The Marvels' version of Cohen's "Anthem" would have earned his deep appreciation. While the string players follow the languid tempo and harmony, Lloyd solos up and down the melody, expanding it incrementally as if it were being imparted to him in a dream. The musician's sensitivity and spiritual empathy are redolent. His "Dismal Swamp" is a funky soul-jazz wherein he leads the band with punchy flute vamps as Frisell paints the margins with Harland, Leisz, and Rogers roiling the groove. "Monk's Mood" is rendered with lush nocturnal atmospherics as steel and sax share the melody. The pedal steel adds a touch of exotica, but Frisell's comping keeps it earthbound. "Ay Amor" is a reinvention of Cuban singer, songwriter, and pianist Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández (aka Bola de Nieve). Lloyd and company render it with breezy elegance, poignant emotion, and deep respect. Both Gábor Szabó's "Lady Gabor" and Lloyd's "Prayer" date to the early 1960s when the guitarist and saxophonist were with Chico Hamilton's group. On the former, dancing drums and bass meet spiky flute jabs that feed Frisell's biting garagey psychedelia. "Prayer" commences as a spectral ballad featuring Rogers' glorious arco playing before Lloyd's tenor carries it outside briefly to the tumult that exists beyond the margin. Frisell's shard-like chords and Leisz's atmospherics frame Harland's tense tom-tom pulse and muted cymbals. Over nearly nine minutes, it changes shapes several times before the tenor whispers the set out. While the singers on earlier Marvels albums offered ready accessibility, Tone Poem is perhaps more resonant given its consummate musicality and masterful tune curation." AMG - Thom Jurek.