WHEN Charles Lloyd was a child, Duke Ellington gave the aspiring musician some advice. “He told my mother, ‘No, he must be a doctor, lawyer or Indian chief, because being a musician is too hard.’ He meant the life, the travel all the time and what you have to deal with. But by then, I was bit by the cobra. There was no turning back!”
Now 85 and living in the southern Californian hills, Lloyd – primarily a saxophonist, but also a singer and multi-instrumentalist – has an impressive career to look back on, despite Ellington’s wise words. There have been early masterpieces with Chico Hamilton, Cannonball Adderley and his own quartets, pioneering spiritual and psychedelic jazz, collaborations with The Beach Boys and his latest exploratory albums on Blue Note.