2020年以降の世界情勢に落ち着かないチャールズ・ロイドは、新しいバンドをフィーチャーした新しいスタジオ・レコーディングという形で音楽を提供する構想を練り始めた。このカルテットは、伝説的なサックス奏者がピアニストのジェイソン・モラン、ベーシストのラリー・グレナディア、ドラマーのブライアン・ブレイドとともに、初めて4人の個性的な声を集めた名門ブル-ノートに移籍して11枚目となる作品!

ロイドが85歳の誕生日を迎えた2023年春にこの壮大な2枚組アルバムが完成した。20世紀から21世紀にかけて最も重要なミュージシャンの一人が、今なお絶頂期にあることを示す荘厳な作品群で、新旧のロイドのオリジナル曲を集めて再構築した。

収録曲のうち「The Water Is Rising」、「Late Bloom」、「The Ghost of Lady Day」など6曲がロイドのペンによる新曲で、LP2枚組となる壮大なボリュームとなっている。新たなメンバーによるカルテットのパフォーマンスも彼が想起した世界観を見事に描き出しており、現在も作曲家、ミュージシャン、バンド・リーダーとしてオーディエンスに感動を与え続けているジャズ界最高峰の新たな代表作となり得る注目の作品だ。
アルバムの発売日に86歳の誕生日を迎えるチャールス・ロイド。今もなおシーンの最前線で活躍を続ける彼から新たに届けられるアルバムに期待が高まる。

〈パーソネル〉 CHarles Lloyd (ts, as, bass flute, alto flute)、Jason Moran (p)、Larry Granadia (b)、Brian Blade (ds, perc)

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2024/01/17）

In his sleeve notes for The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, Charles Lloyd reflects on himself as a naive young man who thought he could replace the worlds ugliness with beauty and his generations unrealized hope to "right the ship" through action, creation, and empathy. Almost discouraged by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020s state of the world, he assembled this quartet "... to make an offering of tenderness...." Pianist Jason Moran and bassist Larry Grenadier have worked (separately) with Lloyd before. He has known drummer Brian Blade for years but hadnt worked with him. The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow is Lloyds 11th Blue Note album, and was released on his 86th birthday. Its two discs contain six unreleased compositions, seven revisioned catalog selections, and new readings of two traditional songs. It is bookended with the quietly stunning "Defiant, Tender Warrior." Introduced by rumbling tom-toms and a triadic vamp from Moran, Grenadier frames the changes before Lloyd enters, offering a languid melody he improvises on at every turn, as the trio plays mantra-like behind him. As the tension gently builds, Lloyd solos and searches, finding aesthetic and spiritual connection with his mates while Moran elegantly builds out the harmonic ledge. "The Lonely One, originally on 2022s Trios: Ocean, retains its lyric core, though here its more exploratory. On "Monks Dance," the pianist accesses Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton, and Ben Bernie & His Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra-referencing "Sweet Georgia Brown" as Lloyd engages him in buoyant conversation. He plays flute on "Bookers Garden," a gorgeous modal blues for friend and fellow Memphian Booker Little. Led by Moran, "Ghost of Lady Day" is a spacious, inquisitive meditation on the "sound" of the singer who deeply moved the young Lloyd while listening to late-night jazz radio. The emotional title track commences with rugged group conversation using post-bop until Moran drops a blues vamp on the band. Lloyd, accompanied by Blade and Grenadier, solos, weaving smooth blues and gospel lines with West Coast jazz accents. Lloyd reworks "Beyond Darkness" on flute to gently explore chamber jazz with the quartet. Morans solo is at once incisive and quite intuitive. Folk standards "Balm in Gilead" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing" are sequenced together, followed directly by "When the Sun Comes Up, The Darkness Is Gone." Each song combines deep listening with confident group improv while remaining faithful to the lyric melody inherent in each. Lloyd resurrects "Cape to Cairo" from 1995s All My Relations. Its sparse intro, asserted by the saxophonists tenor and Morans elliptical accents, frames Blades rolling toms and Grenadiers rich, woody tone. Closer "Defiant, Reprise; Homeward Dove" joins the gentle, folk-like melody to a circular, minor-key modal ballad while gently invoking the exploratory spirits of Pharoah Sanders and Jim Pepper. Lloyd has released a large catalog filled of truly fine recordings. The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow stands as one of his best late-career master works. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi