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"I always hear the call," says saxophonist Charles Lloyd. "Please don't get me wrong, but if we could all be quiet and listen inside, we wouldn't be ignorant of our own true natures, which is deep and profound and talks to us. It's a call. Different to the illusion of noise. It's a focus... This voice." Lloyd is sitting in the parlor of a four-star hotel, free associating about the title of his latest CD, "Voice In The Night" (ECM). With his California tan and a superb sense of sartorial elegance, he's looking pretty four-star himself. I suggest that some people might associate voices in the night with despair. "Despair is very, very far from the spirit," he protests. "But you can never predict a response to a title. On my last record, "Canto," I had a number called "Desolation Sound." It's the name of a body of water in Canada. It's very rustic, serene. A journalist in Germany asked me why I chose such a bleak title. I didn't understand what he meant. I asked what the title meant to him and he said, "When I go to my job in the morning, my editor screams at me; he is a very mean man, and I have three children, and all I can do is think of my children and that's desolation for me." And I said, 'Oh my God, it's just a body of water!'" For nearly four decades Lloyd has been a major figure in jazz. Getting his first breaks playing with Chico Hamilton and Cannonball Adderley, he became a star with his own quartet, featuring a discovery of his, pianist Keith Jarrett. From the mid-'60s on, he has devoted himself to what he calls his "explorations of the quartet," working with different instrumental formations. While "Canto" was an austerely beautiful work with a pared-down quality, his new CD, which features drummer Billy Higgins, is warmer, more lively and relaxed. Do the two records reflect a change in his life? 'Pared down' is a good term. I'm always interested in the distillation of essence. But I don't make lines of demarcation like that. I've been playing with the Canto group for a long time. 'Voice In The Night' was a new unfolding with an old friend. I've had this association with Billy since I was 18, when I first went to LA. We were young, we had a great camaraderie. Then our lives went in different directions. So there was an exuberance present when we made this record. Maybe you heard it. When you become a little wiser you look back and you see if the inspirations are clear and the soundings are still reverberating properly. It's like going back to bring it forward. I hope the record has something of the wisdom of the elders but I hope it also manifests that infinite joy of youthful enthusiasm we still feel when we play together, the same impetus for something that you've loved all your life. I'm a great believer in watering the roots. On July 1, as part of the La Villette Jazz Festival, Lloyd will be doing some more irrigation work, with special friends including Billy Higgins. Charles Lloyd & Friends, 8pm, July 1, La Villette Jazz Festival, 211, av Jean-Jaurès, 19e, Metro Porte de Pantin, tel: 08.03.07.50.75, 175F/140F for evening pass.
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