Charles Lloyd
Notes From Big Sur

Charles Lloyd tenor saxophone
Bobo Stenson piano
Anders Jormin bass
Ralph Peterson drums

Requiem
Sister
Pilgrimage To The Mountain (Part 1, Persevere)
Sam Song
Takur
Monk In Paris
When Miss Jessye Sings
Pilgrimage To The Mountain (Part 2, Surrender)

Recorded November 1991
ECM 1465

Amazon.com
Echoes of the quieter and bluer John Coltrane are heard frequently here in Charles Lloyd's horn, and some of his writing, too. Lloyd and Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson, Lloyd's collaborator throughout the 1990s, contribute occasional, measured energy, but for the most part it is measure and phrasing that predominate, beginning at the opening with a genuinely affecting "Requiem." At times there are indications of Lloyd's late-1990s gravitation to transporting, meditative performance--for example, "Persevere," part 1 of "Pilgrimage to the Mountain," begins with a contemplative arco bass solo from Anders Jormin suggestive of travels in body and spirit to high, distant places. Drummer Ralph Peterson joins gently on hammers, then Lloyd, ever so quietly. Part 2 of "Pilgrimage," entitled "Surrender," partially refrains that effect at the album's end, and the East-inflected "Takur" is similarly ethereal. Elsewhere, the album generally steers more conventional soundways, to satisfying ends, nonetheless. --Peter Monaghan