Figure In Blue

2025年3月、伝説的なサックス奏者チャールス・ロイドは、サンタバーバラのロベロ・シアターで開催された自身の87歳の誕生日コンサートのために、ジェイソン・モラン(ピアノ)とマーヴィン・セウェル(ギター)という2人の音楽探求者たちとともに新しいトリオを結成し、すぐにスタジオに入り録音したという、ブルーノート12作目のアルバム。

2枚組アルバムは、美しいバラードから生々しいデルタ・ブルースまで、幅広い音楽領域を探求しており、デューク・エリントン、ビリー・ホリデイ、ザキール・フセインへの素晴らしいオマージュも収録されている。
＜パーソネル＞Al Jarreau(vo) Tom Canning(p) Ben Atkins(b) Tom Drake(ds)

Veteran composer, flutist, and saxophonist Charles Lloyd returns to the trio format on the double-length Figure in Blue. In 2022 he issued three Trios albums: Chapel, Ocean, and Sacred Thread. His collaborators are pianist Jason Moran and guitarist Marvin Sewell. Theyve worked with the saxophonist previously, but this is their first time recording together. Lloyd composed eight of the 14 tracks. The set opener is the favorite spiritual "Abide with Me." The interplay between Moran and Sewell in the intro lends it a pastoral shade before the saxophonist commences with the melody, reverent, tender, and moving. It doesnt so much register as a hymn as a sacred memory. The spiritual character in Lloyds music cannot be overstated. Its been there almost since the beginning of his solo career. The title track, "Figure in Blue: Memories of Duke," is a ballad wherein his horn trades almost beatific musical phrases with each of his bandmates before ushering in a gently swinging midtempo ballad adorned by Morans intricate accents and Sewells Brazilian jazz-tinged chords. The trio also cover Ellingtons "Heaven" (one of his most soulful ballads) and "Black Butterfly," an exercise in lush harmony that includes one of Lloyds finest solos on the set. There are a pair of killer blues originals in "Chulahoma," and "Blues for Langston." These evoke Lloyds youth in Memphis playing with B.B. King and Howlin Wolf. The formers first half is a brooding, spooky electric slide guitar solo that comes right from the Delta tradition, quoting from several blues and spirituals including "Wade in the Water." When Lloyd joins halfway through, he trades fours with the guitarist on sax and flute as Moran paints the backdrop. On the latter, Sewell abandons the slide for warm distortion, ambient reverb, and a hell of a lot of string bending. The guitarist comes by his blues voice naturally; hes spent decades on Chicagos blues and jazz scenes. "Song My Lady Sings" and "The Ghost of Lady Day" are original ballads offered in tribute to Billie Holiday. The latter, with its winding reverbed guitar and lush, lower-register piano chords, almost sounds like a funeral dirge. Lloyd mournfully employs his Hungarian tarogato on the haunted, solo "Ancient Rain." "Hymn to the Mother, For Zakir" is lovingly and meditatively offered in memoriam for the great tabla master Zakir Hussain, with whom Lloyd played on Sangam with drummer Eric Harland, and on Trios: Sacred Thread with guitarist Julian Lage. The set closes with a deeply emotional read of Leonard Bernsteins and Stephen Sondheims "Somewhere" from West Side Story. This achingly beautiful song is performed as if it were composed specifically for the trio, then whispers the album to a close. Figure in Blue is a further showcase for Lloyds late-period musical majesty. The deliberately pursued contemplative aesthetic might be too gentle or slow for some, but this saxophonist and his sidemen deliver a jazz masterclass for trios. ~ Thom Jurek

澄んだスモーキー。ユセフ・ラティーフやキャノンボール・アダレイのバンドでの共演/演奏後、キース・ジャレットやジャック・ディジョネットらと自身のカルテットを結成するなど時代と共に生ける伝説サックス奏者:チャールス・ロイド。自身の87歳の誕生日コンサートでジェイソン・モラン(p)とマーヴィン・セウェル(g)の音楽探求者達と新トリオを結成し、後日にスタジオ録音した名門ブルーノート12作目。美しいバラードや生々しいデルタ・ブルースまで幅広い音楽領域の探求に成功。デューク・エリントン、ビリー・ホリデイへの唯一無二のオマージュも収録。円熟と哀愁を帯びたメロディと澄んだ響き。ええやんええやん。
intoxicate (C)黒田"ハイプ"朋規