(Personally) Slept On Gems

Sorcery - Charles Lloyd Quartet
from the album Forest Flower at Monterey on Atlantic (1966).
Sombrero Sam - Charles Lloyd Quartet
from the album Soundtrack on Atlantic (1969).
Both albums were released as a single CD by Atlantic in 1994.

I had meant to post on this album ages ago and was reminded by floodwatch's very nice recent post on Bobby Hutcherson. Much like Mr. Watch's delay in finally getting ahold of Hutcherson's Montara, I've only recently tuned in to Charles Lloyd's Forest Flower at Monterey. This is relatively inexcusable considering the album's massive popularity (the rare platinum jazz album) and line-up (Lloyd on sax and flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Cecil McBee on bass). I say relatively inexcusable because there is an excuse for avoiding this great album for so long. Namely, my college radio station (KTRU - Rice University Radio) had lots of Lloyd's 80s and 90s albums and they were quite terrible. Usually I look to keep the hate to minimum but really I could not get into those albums in the least.

Still at long last my prejudices were shoved aside when I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the album for free and I've been enjoying it ever since. Of course my love for Jarrett has been mentioned here before and remains unabated. In one of their first recordings together DeJohnette and Jarrett are already interchanging beautifully, and McBee hangs right with them the whole way. While the title track is sublime and the most well known, I chose the Jarrett composition "Sorcery" to feature. It is one of the two studio recordings from the album (the rest are live at the Monterey Jazz Festival) and is all sharp edges and inventive phrasing from Jarrett and Lloyd. I'm amazed at what crosses over to the mainstream from jazz, because while the opening refrain sounds like a new Charlie Brown score the extended interplay between Lloyd's flute and Jarrett's piano from 2-3 minutes is some really heady stuff. Having gone back to many of Lloyd's 60s albums with Jarrett since getting tuned in I have to say he's far more interesting on flute than sax. Please sir, I would like to hear jazz flute.

When Atlantic re-released the album on CD it was coupled with the later live album (at Town Hall in NYC) Soundtrack. Soundtrack features the same team except McBee is replaced by Ron McClure and again features a (not-featured here) rendition of the great "Forest Flower Suite." Example track for this album is the Lloyd composition "Sombrero Sam" which accurately portrays the entire album's strongly funky feel. Just listen to sharp crack of DeJohnette's drums on this track along with Jarrett's bluesy piano runs...I picture the Kashmere Stage Band kids growing into this stuff in college. The funky feel is exuded in the second half of the "Forest Flower" also so that my feet stomp and head nods everytime. I'll freely admit there is an immense pile of terrible music out there; but remember in music, as in life, prejudice closes off opportunities.