Cast
Charles Lloyd — Flutist, saxophonist
Zakir Hussain — Tabla, singer
Eric Harland — Drummer
Program notes
The Jazz à Vienne Festival in France is graced by a performance from legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd in its 2013 edition. Lloyd, alongside Zakir Hussein on vocals and tabla, and Eric Harland on drums, take a deep dive into the spirituality of music, exploring what can be achieved on their instruments, through extensive improvisation.
The mix of the drums and tabla creates a busy, rhythmically complex landscape to build improvisations from, and the two drastically different sounds of the kit and more traditional percussion mesh together well, and Lloyd’s expertise allows him to improvise freely, harmonically speaking, on top. This performance is an exciting mix of different types of improvised music, from harmonically rich piano sections with Hussein vocally improvising, to intense tabla and drum improvisation and trading, a musical journey, not just for the musicians, but for the listener too.