Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Hagar’s Song (2013) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Hagar’s Song (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:24 minutes | 1,24 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Hagar’s Song, the latest album from long-time ECM luminary Charles Lloyd, is a thrilling duo recording with Jason Moran. The pianist was a key member of Lloyd’s latter-day quartet, performing on the albums Rabo de Nube, Mirror and Athens Concert. This stunning new release features pieces dear to Lloyd including compositions by Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson. The centerpiece on the album is the title suite, dedicated to Lloyd’s great-great-grandmother.

Hagar’s Song is a deeply intimate, intuitive offering from saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianist Jason Moran, who has been a key part of Lloyd’s quartet since 2008. The program is a collection of standards and originals, as well as one thorny, angular free improvisation (“Pictogram”). The title piece is a five-part suite dedicated to the memory of Lloyd’s great-great grandmother, who spent most of her life as a slave. Its various sections reflect the harshness of that life, as well as moments of hope and determination. This work is not always “comfortable” to listen to, and it’s not meant to be, but it is musically rich and emotionally taut. Lloyd has always celebrated his deep love of jazz and pop traditions, and those are in abundance here. The near-symbiotic dialogue the pair share on Billy Strayhorn’s “Pretty Girl” and George Gershwin’s “Bess You Is My Woman Now” offers both dialogic imagination as well as deep listening. (On the latter, Lloyd reveals how supple his tonal reach remains on the tenor as he nears 75; he sweeps from its middle register to something closer to the alto’s.) The swinging read of “Mood Indigo” commences conventionally, but Moran’s deft, blues-drenched, physical stride lends an urgency to the conversation. Likewise his punchy approach on Earl Hines’ “Rosetta,” where Lloyd takes the melody and opens up its joy vein, while Moran pumps it with rhythmic and lyric invention courtesy of his amazing left hand. Lloyd’s love of rock and pop has its place here, too. On Bob Dylan’s ballad “I Shall Be Released,” Moran begins with a single repeating note, then a lone chord, as Lloyd tentatively states the melody. But by the second verse, he’s quoting from Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” as Moran moves its harmonic base to the modal. Lloyd brings it back via an emotional blues, but his tenor moves through its registers picking bits and pieces of the lyric line to meditate upon and explore with Moran. The closer, a reading of Brian Wilson’s “God Only Knows” is just gorgeous. Moran’s elaboration on the harmony in the intro sets it up outside its known parameters. Lloyd quotes the refrain and then takes the lyric line, exploring time and memory — Lloyd ran around with the Beach Boys in Southern California in the late ’60s. Satisfied, he turns it over to Moran to finish with a close, tender harmonic statement that whispers to a finish. Hagar’s Song finds Lloyd and Moran at their most naturally curious and deeply attentive best, offering a conversation so intimate the listener may occasionally feel she is eavesdropping.

Tracklist:
1. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Pretty Girl (04:42)
2. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Mood Indigo (05:13)
3. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Bess, You Is My Woman Now (03:36)
4. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – All About Ronnie (04:17)
5. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Pictogram (03:56)
6. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – You’ve Changed (04:47)
7. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Journey Up River (06:20)
8. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Dreams Of White Bluff (09:47)
9. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Alone (02:29)
10. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Bolivar Blues (04:16)
11. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Hagar’s Lullaby (05:41)
12. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – Rosetta (04:37)
13. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – I Shall Be Released (05:07)
14. Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran – God Only Knows (03:30)

Personnel:
Charles Lloyd – alto and tenor saxophone, alto and bass flute
Jason Moran – piano, tambourine

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