Charles Lloyd & the Marvels with Special Guest Lucinda Williams
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Thursday, December 6, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Charles Lloyd & The Marvels with special guest Lucinda Williams featuring Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland is evening’s concert will be performed without an intermission and will last approximately 90 minutes. Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. ABOUT THE ARTISTS hen the incomparable Lucinda post-bop direction when Hamilton asked him Williams joined Charles Lloyd and to be the group’s music director. In 1964 Lloyd We Marvels at UCLA’s Royce Hall le Hamilton’s group to join alto saxophonist in April 2017, the musicians beamed with un - Cannonball Adderley. He recorded two albums bridled joy. e same could be said for the fans as a leader for Columbia Records— Discovery fortunate enough to witness the concert, to share and Of Course, Of Course —where his sidemen the depths of the artistry and musical explo - included Gabor Szabo, Don Friedman, Herbie ration taking place on stage. ere were tears, Han cock, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, and Pete as well, as Williams reached inside herself for La Roca. In 1965 Lloyd formed a quartet with powerful expressions of love, longing, and loss pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Cecil McBee, and in equal measure. But the image that remains drummer Jack DeJohnette in a meeting of strongest from this remarkable night is of straight-ahead post-bop, free jazz, rock, and Lloyd—radiant and enchanted, at times not world music. eir music quickly caught the even playing—simply taking in the wonders of attention of jazz fans and critics, and they the colla bor ation that had formed around him. achieved crossover success with young rock at same energy buzzed through the re - fans, becoming the first jazz group to play in the cording sessions in a Los Angeles studio that famed Fillmore. e album Forest Flower, Live resulted in Vanished Gardens , the new album at Monterey sold over one million copies. featuring Lloyd, Williams, and the singular mix Aer becoming disillusioned with the music of talent that comprises e Marvels: Bill Frisell business, Lloyd retreated to Big Sur for 10 years, on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar, but following a near-death experience in 1986, Reu ben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on he decided to rededicate himself to music. drums—musicians who have, just like Lloyd In 1989 Lloyd reestablished an active touring and Williams, set their own unique courses and schedule and began recording with ECM found their own personal forms of expression Records. Noteworthy albums include Fish Out and exploration, while always thriving in col - of Water , Canto , Voice In the Night, e Water laborative settings. is Wide (featuring Brad Mehldau, John Aber - crom bie, Larry Grenadier, and Billy Higgins), Charles Lloyd was born in Memphis, Tennes - and Sangam (with Zakir Hussain and Eric see, in 1938. By an early age he had been ex - Har land). Rabo de Nube and Mirror are highly posed to jazz music and was immersed in that acclaimed recordings with Lloyd’s New Quartet city’s rich musical life. Lloyd began playing the featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, and saxophone at the age of nine. Pianist Phineas Eric Harland. Newborn became his mentor, and took him to Commissioned by Jazztopad in Wroclaw, Irvin Reason for lessons. Lloyd’s closest friend Poland to write a new composition for its 2013 in high school was trumpeter Booker Little. festival, Lloyd wrote Wild Man Dance Suite , He worked in Phineas Sr .’s band, and became released on Blue Note Records in 2015. He a sideman in the blues bands of B.B. King, then formed e Marvels, featuring Bill Frisell, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnnie Ace, Bobbie “Blue” Bland, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland, and Greg Leisz. and others. Together they released I Long To See You in In 1956 Lloyd moved to Los Angeles, where 2016 (Blue Note Records). e group’s most he studied at and graduated from the University recent album, released last June, is Vanished of Southern California. During this period he Gardens (Blue Notes Records), a collaboration played in Gerald Wilson’s big band and formed with the great American singer and poet Lucin - his own group, which included Billy Higgins, da Williams. Don Cherry, Bobby Hutcherson, Scott LaFaro, and Terry Trotter. Lloyd joined Chico Hamilton Lucinda Williams , a three-time Grammy win - in 1960, and his influence as a composer ner, has been forging her own unique path for quickly pushed the group in a more progressive more than three decades now. Born in Lake PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS Charles, Louisiana, Williams had been imbued Over the years, Frisell has contributed to the with a “culturally rich, economically poor” work of such collaborators as Paul Motian, John world view. Several years of playing the hard - Zorn, Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, the Los scrabble clubs gave her the confidence to record Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon a self-titled album that would become a touch - Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, stone for the embryonic Ameri cana move - Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Vinicius Can - ment—helping launch a thousand musical tu ária, Marc Johnson (in Bass Desires ), Ronald ships along the way. Shannon Jackson and Melvin Gibbs (in Power For the past 30 years, Williams has channeled Tools ), Marianne Faithful, John Scofield, her perspective as a proud but vulnerable Jan Garbarek, Lyle Mays, Vernon Reid, Julius Southern female into a string of stellar albums, Hemp hill, Paul Bley, Wayne Horvitz, Hal each of which weave rock, country, folk, and Willner, Robin Holcomb, Rinde Eckert, the blues so tightly that each of the distinct ele - Frankfurt Ballet, film director Gus Van Sant, ments seems to disappear. Lucinda Williams David Sanborn, David Sylvian, Petra Haden, (1988) was her breakthrough disc, but 1998’s and many others. Car Wheels on a Gravel Road assured her repu - tation as a formidable singer-songwriter. Rumi - The word “ubiquitous” is usually placed before na ting on disappointments, fretting over lost pedal steel player and guitarist Greg Leisz ’s friends, and celebrating life’s subtlest joys, Car name. With good reason—the man’s resume is Wheels earned Williams a Grammy Award for daunting, including spots with Joni Mitchell, Best Con temporary Folk Album and became Sheryl Crow, Peter Case, Paul Westerberg, the first commercially successful record of her Me’Shell Ndegeocello, Victoria Williams, Joe career, going gold within a year of its release. Cocker, Dave Alvin, k.d. lang, Lucinda Williams, rough her work with guitarists Bill Frisell Bruce Cockburn, Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole, and Greg Leisz, Williams was introduced to jazz and the Ventures, to name a few. So as to avoid legend Charles Lloyd. ey immediately felt a being pigeonholed as only a roots musician, connection through their Southern roots and Leisz (pronounced “Lees”) has also played with have gone on to join each other for concerts and the likes of Beck, Matthew Sweet, Bad Religion, recordings. Williams’ newest release, is Sweet the Smashing Pumpkins, and Brian Wilson. Old World on Highway 20 Records, is a remake Leisz spent his younger years catching acts of her earlier album on its 25th anniversary. like the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers in Southern California clubs. Part of his uni - Bill Frisell was born in Baltimore, and his in - versal appeal—which certainly draws on the terest in guitar began with his boyhood expo - experimental nature of those artists—comes sure to the pop music he heard on the radio. from an open-minded approach to lap and Soon, the Chicago blues became a passion pedal steel, an approach that casts aside Nash - through the work of Otis Rush, B.B. King, Paul ville references. Leisz is also somewhat of a Butterfield, and Buddy Guy. In high school, stylistic chameleon: you can’t pin him down to Frisell played in bands covering pop and soul a single style because he chooses to serve and classics, James Brown, and other dance mate - accompany a song rather than place his own rial. Later, he studied music at the University of mark on it. Leisz’s creativity and open-mind - Northern Colorado before attending the Berk - edness as a musician have allowed him to roam lee College of Music in Boston, where he stud - freely from genre to genre, a talent not usually ied with John Damian, Herb Pomeroy, and found in steel players. During the 1990s, Leisz Michael Gibbs. In 1978 Frisell moved for a year also began making a name for himself as a pro - to Belgium, where he concentrated on compo - ducer, helming releases by such performers sition. During this period, he toured with as Rosie Flores, Dave Alvin, Tom Russell, and Michael Gibbs and first recorded with German Lisa Mednick. bassist Eberhard Weber. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Reuben Rogers was raised in the Virgin Islands, Eric Harland is currently a member of Sangam, where he was exposed to a wide variety of the Charles Lloyd New Quartet, Charles Lloyd music, including Calypso, Reggae, jazz, Latin, and e Marvels, James Farm, and Aziza. Har - and gospel. Encouraged by his parents, Rogers land also has his own group, Voyager, which has was motivated to explore the full range of his recorded two albums: Voyager, Live By Night exceptional musical talent. His first instrument and Vipassana . was the clarinet. He then experimented with the In DownBeat ’s 65th annual readers poll, Har - piano, saxophone, drums, and guitar before land was selected for the short list of drummers, finding his true love in the bass at the age of 14. in the company of masters like Roy Haynes As a bass player, Rogers has won numerous and the late Elvin Jones.