Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is renowned for fearlessly reinventing himself to explore some recently discovered facet of his personality and art. A few years after his final recording in the band of drummer Chico Hamilton and the same year as the saxophonist’s Forest Flower was released, Lloyd took a star-studded ensemble to the Montreux Jazz Festival. Vividly depicting a band that was functioning at its peak, Montreux Jazz Festival 1967 (Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series 46) serves to fill out listeners’ understanding of Lloyd’s work with pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette. (Ron McClure’s on bass, though Cecil McBee frequently accompanied the saxophonist at the time.) - DownBeat Magazine

REVIEW:

Vividly depicting a band that was functioning at its peak, Montreux Jazz Festival 1967serves to fill out listeners’ understanding of Lloyd’s work with pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette. (Ron McClure’s on bass, though Cecil McBee frequently accompanied the saxophonist at the time.)

The bandleader’s decision to include “Lady Gabor,” which originally appeared on a Hamilton disc Lloyd helped record, is just curious given that he had decades of the genre to pick through for inspiration. Lloyd and guitarist Gabor Szabo, who wrote the tune, got their start performing in the relatively unheralded Hamilton groups of the 1960s. And while Szabo dispatched a handful of pretty memorable Technicolor leader dates, there haven’t been too many folks who’ve interpreted his songbook.

This live 1967 recording—which sports a 27-minute rendition of “Forest Flower,” replete with an intense DeJohnette drum solo—lends an air of relevance to Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo’s work almost 40 years after his death. The rendition here is all entrancing flute moves from the bandleader and block-y chords from Jarrett, adding a contemplative vibe to a set of tunes that also takes a run at the pianist’s “Days And Nights Waiting,” and Lloyd’s “Love Ship” and “Sweet Georgia Bright.”

-- Downbeat (Dave Cantor)

Swiss pianist Thierry Lang has always admired Toots Thielemans with great affection and sincerity. Thus it was only a matter of time for the two to work together. This happened when, in 1989, Toots Thielemans and the Thierry Lang Trio got together for a great concert at Cully Jazz Festival. The result was so special that the promoter of Cully Jazz Festival decided to repeat the experience the following year, something quite rare in the programming of any festival. This never-before-released material was recorded by Radio Suisse Romance and contains tracks from both events. Toots Thielemans: "Our meeting was the almost inevitable result of our common admiration for Bill Evans' harmonic and melodic world. And Bill is still a mentor whose influence Thierry never hides."