Tone Poem

Over Frisell’s boogieing groove, his quavering upper tone and squabbling whispers muse over languid country-ballad guitar harmonies on Leonard Cohen’s Anthem. Bola de Nieve’s Ay Amor! is a highlight,... — The Guardian, 26th March 2021, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 12th Mar 2021
Catalogue No: 3526343
Label: Blue Note
Series: Tone Poet Vinyl

Jazzwise

Editor's Choice

April 2021
Presto Recording of the Week

30th April 2021
The Guardian

Jazz Album of the Month

March 2021

1. Peace

2. Ramblin

3. Anthem

4. Dismal Swamp

5. Tone Poem

6. Monk's Mood

7. Ay Amor (Live)

8. Lady Gabor

9. Prayer

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Recording of the Week, Charles Lloyd & The Marvels - Tone Poem

30th April 2021

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd takes on Monk and Coleman via bluesy Americana with his quintet The Marvels, featuring Bill Frisell.

Tone Poem is the third full-length album by Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, the genre-straddling quintet that features the master saxophonist with Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. Following the band’s 2016 debut I Long To See You and their 2018 collaboration with Lucinda Williams, Vanished Gardens, the nine dynamic instrumental tracks here include new Lloyd originals along with pieces by Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Leonard Cohen, Gabor Szabo, and Bola de Nieve. The vinyl edition of Tone Poem was supervised by Joe Harley and will be the first-ever new release to be presented as part of Blue Note’s acclaimed Tone Poet Vinyl Series.

Reviews

26th March 2021

Over Frisell’s boogieing groove, his quavering upper tone and squabbling whispers muse over languid country-ballad guitar harmonies on Leonard Cohen’s Anthem. Bola de Nieve’s Ay Amor! is a highlight, as is a grippingly dirgelike Monk’s Mood – but the standout is Lloyd’s homage to his old California cronies the Beach Boys, on an ethereally slow-burning bonus-track arrangement of In My Room.

April 2021

Of course, it’s Lloyd’s eloquent, hypnotic saxophone that moderates the ebb and flow of proceedings, but the musical context with which he surrounds himself suggests a potential for growth in managing the relationship of the electric to the acoustic. A big step in that direction comes with Tone Poem, that with the absence of vocals places Lloyd and his ensemble centre stage for a more detailed update on their direction of travel.

April 2021

Tone Poem not only dispenses with vocals but, apart from a hymn-like rendering of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” most of the rock trappings. Instead of covering Dylan or Hendrix, this album goes for Monk and Ornette,albeit in a strongly pop-inflected style. Coleman’s “Ramblin’,” for
instance, is more blues-rock than free-jazz, pushed along by Eric Harland’s second-line pulse, and framed by both the feedback-spiced jab of Bill Frisell’s guitar and the freight-train whine of Greg Leisz’s pedal steel.

30th April 2021

Lloyd’s band keeps it loose and free, but there’s no mistaking the brilliant chemistry between each member of the ensemble. His familiar collaborators, Rogers and Harland, do an excellent job of holding together the tunes with a certain effortless elasticity. Even with all the individual players adding their own textures and flavours to the tracks, Lloyd himself remains the sole guide throughout the hour-plus runtime of Tone Poem, be it on sax or flute; seamlessly blending the sounds of heartland Americana and his Memphis blues past into his jazzy concoction.

Tone Poem

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Recording of the Week, Charles Lloyd & The Marvels - Tone Poem

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Tone Poem

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