Arrows Into Infinity

Charles Lloyd

Arrows Into InfinityArrows Into Infinity
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Release date: 18.07.2014 ECM 5052
DVD18,90 €add to cartBluRay19,90 €add to cart
Arrows Into Infinity chronicles the arc of an improviser’s still-unfolding life, moving through time with memories, archive footage and music, lots of music. Charles Lloyd’s story is a special one, and it intersects with important moments in jazz history. Lloyd grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and had early contact both to masters of an increasingly sophisticated jazz tradition and the raw voices of the blues. Booker Little was a childhood friend, Phineas Newborn a mentor. In his teens Lloyd hit the road with Howlin’ Wolf. He befriended Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Billy Higgins in a period when blueprints for musical freedom were redrawn, and replaced Eric Dolphy in Chico Hamilton’s band, soon building a reputation as an exceptional saxophonist and a composer of strikingly original melodies. His own groups drew together some of the most exciting players of the day, and his late 60s quartet with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette made an impact at many levels, playing opposite Hendrix and Janis Joplin at the Fillmore Auditorium, touring Europe’s festivals to great acclaim, making a now-legendary foray into the Soviet Union, and selling a million copies of their Forest Flower album, a massive FM radio hit. Then Charles Lloyd retreated from the limelight, preferring to play his flute in the mountain forests of Big Sur. For almost two decades sightings of him in jazz contexts were rare. A tentative return to public service was made in the company of pianist Michel Petrucciani; the 1989 ECM recording Fish Out Of Water, with Bobo Stenson, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen signaled a new beginning. Since then Lloyd has led a succession of outstanding bands including the recent quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland and the Sangam trio with Harland and Zakir Hussain. These musicians contribute their thoughts about Charles Lloyd’s work to this remarkable documentary – as do Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Robbie Robertson, Jack DeJohnette, Don Was, John Densmore, Jim Keltner, Geri Allen, Larry Grenadier, Alicia Hall Moran, Stanley Crouch, Manfred Eicher, Michael Cuscuna, Arthur Monroe and Ayuko Babu. Arrows Into Infinity is available in DVD and Blu-ray formats. Running time 113 minutes. Subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian.
 
Video: 16:9, NTSC
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 & 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish
Total running time: 113 minutes
Disc type: 9
Country code: all
Featured Artists
Original Release Date

18.07.2014

Wie der modern Jazz die Geschichte der letzten sechzig Jahre mitschrieb, kann man auf einer wunderbaren DVD anschauen. ‚Arrows Into Infinity‘ erzählt die Lebensgeschichte des Saxofonisten Charles Lloyd von seiner Kindheit in den Südstaaten zu Zeiten der Rassentrennung über seine Jahre als Jazz-Genie zwischen Rockstars der Woodstock-Ära und seine verlorenen Jahre in der Einsamkeit von Big Sur bis zu seiner neuen Rolle als Meister der musikalischen Trance.
Andrian Kreye, Süddeutsche Zeitung
 
This film, made by Lloyd’s wife, artist Dorothy Darr, and film maker Jeffery Morse, reminds me of those music documentaries you see on BBC4 on a Friday evening: lots of live footage, lots of talking heads, a smattering of stills of billboards and atmospheric photographs from the times. But this, it should be stressed, is a most superior form of such documentaries. This is mostly due to Darr, I would guess […] No one knows Charles Lloyd better, no one has his interests more at heart, and no one could make a film about him with this level of understanding and insight. […] His ECM recordings and tours have been filled with riches – great bands, marvellously led, and ever moving forward, ever searching. There is substantial concert footage with musicians including Jason Moran and Zakir Hussain, and home video of Lloyd with his beloved friend, the drummer Billy Higgins, including some of the last music they played together days before Higgins’ death. Not only is ‘Arrows Into Infinity’ an inspiring film about one man, it’s a film of hope and a reminder of the power of this music called jazz.
Peter Bacon, The Jazz Breakfast
 
Charles Lloyds fünfeinhalb Jahrzehnte umspannende Biografie als Musiker und suchendes Individuum ist an Konsequenz schwer zu überbieten. Ein wundervoller, gut zweistündiger Film, den seine Frau Dorothy Darr gemeinsam mit Jeffery Morse drehte, macht die Faszination der Persönlichkeit deutlich, verbindet Konzertmitschnitte mit Aussagen von Zeitzeugen und Lloyd selbst. Gefühlvoll wird den Entwicklungsetappen gefolgt, sodass man schließlich zu verstehen meint, was das Einmalige dieser innigen Musik ausmacht, von der Lloyd sagt: ‚Wenn ich es aussprechen könnte, müsste ich es nicht spielen.‘
Ulrich Steinmetzger, Saabrücker Zeitung
 
Dorothy Darr has produced and directed ‘Arrows into Infinity’ with Jeffery Morse, gathering historic TV and concert footage from the ’60s (London, Newport, Antibes, Tallinn etc), film of recent performances with the current quartet, and of duets with Billy Higgins, giving us a chance to enjoy again the drummer’s matchless sense of swing and unforgettable smile. There are interviews with Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Robbie Robertson, Jim Keltner, Don Was, Zakir Hussain, Geri Allen and many others — including, amazingly, Lewis Steinberg, the original bass player with Booker T and the MGs, who knew the young Lloyd in Memphis. There’s also a delightful sequence of Lloyd playing pool with Ornette Coleman; the two were friends in LA in the ’50s. Lloyd himself, however, is the most interesting witness to the journey that took him from Howlin’ Wolf to Zakir Hussain. The film tells a fascinating story of survival and self-realisation in which his gentle wisdom is an impressive as his music.
Richard Williams, The Blue Moment
 
Sehenswert ist der Dokumentarfilm ‘Charles Lloyd - Arrows Into Infinity‘, der jetzt als DVD zu haben ist. Der fast zwei Stunden lange Streifen erzählt die Lebensgeschichte des 1938 geborenen Saxofonisten - den Aufstieg, Absturz und die Rückkehr einer Jazzlegende. Lloyd erlebte als Junge in Memphis Gastspiele von Duke Ellington; als Teenager ging er mit dem Blues-Barden Howlin' Wolf auf Tour. Er spielte Cool Jazz in der Combo von Chico Hamilton und landete in den späten Sechzigerjahren mit seinem eigenen Quartett den Millionen-Hit ‚Forest Flower‘. Doch auf dem Höhepunkt seiner Karriere verschwand der zeitweilig vielleicht populärste Jazzmusiker seiner Zeit aus der Öffentlichkeit. In Wäldern an der kalifornischen Küste suchte Lloyd eine Alternative zum Leben mit Erfolgsdruck und Drogen. Als er nach fast 20 Jahren ins Jazzgeschäft zurückkehrte, war er ein anderer Mensch. Bis heute gehört Lloyd zu den gefragtesten Saxofonisten. Im Charles-Lloyd-Film finden sich Aufzeichnungen von Konzerten, Interviews mit dem Protagonisten und Aussagen von Weggefährten. Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Jack DeJonette, Jason Moran und viele andere sprechen über Lloyd und den Jazz. Tatsächlich erzählt ‚Arrows Into Infinity‘ weitgehend auch die Jazzgeschichte seit 1960.
Hans Hielscher, Spiegel.de
 
Der sterbende Billy Higgins sagte ihm: ‚Wir müssen weiter an der Musik arbeiten.‘ Und Lloyd trug die Fackel weiter. „Alles im Leben ist eine Vorbereitung auf den letzten Atemzug“, sagt Lloyd. Seine Jazz-Odyssee und der Klänge, die ihn begleiteten, anschaulich zu zeigen, ist das Besondere an diesem Porträt. Dass die Filmemacherin, Lloyds Frau, Dorothy Darr – wie ein Kritiker schrieb – ‚die Messlatte für einen Jazzfilm höher gelegt hat‘, ist es wert, sich ‚Arrows Into Infinity‘ auf DVD anzuschauen.
Karl Lippegaus, Deutschlandfunk
 
The life and times of saxophonist Charles Lloyd have been a heady, complex and almost mythical journey—both around the globe and spiritually—as evidenced by the new documentary Arrows Into Infinity, out now on Blu-ray and DVD. Created by Lloyd’s wife, the painter/filmmaker Dorothy Darr, and filmmaker Jeffery Morse, the film does not pull punches, digging deep into the career of one of the most respected artists in improvised music. […]There’s a touching scene in which old friends Lloyd and Ornette Coleman play pool. There is so much to take in and enjoy in this film. For longtime fans who love Lloyd’s music, Arrows Into Infinity will add another level to that love. He’s not just a musician. He’s an artist—and a role model.
Frank Alkyer, DownBeat
 
In addition to documenting Lloyd's remarkable ascent into superstardom in the mid-to-late '60s, it also covers his almost unprecedented decision, at the height of his popularity, to withdraw from the music industry and spend years in relative isolation in the mountain-filled area of Big Sur, in California, where his spiritual search continued. There's some touching footage of his first return to music with Michel Petrucciani, the French pianist born with ostegenesis imperfecta, a chronic condition that, causing brittle bones, a short stature and premature death in 1999 at the age of 36 and, of course, the saxophonist's full-on return with ECM. Anyone who has met Lloyd knows he's a natural storyteller, and so it's no surprise that, in ‘Arrows Into Infinity’, he provides plenty of insight into both the course of his life and the lifelong search that has driven him from one success to the next.
John Kelman, All About Jazz
 
Saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s story is intriguing, even by jazz standards. As this totally absorbing bio-doc relates, he’s seen both popular acclaim and cult status, in that order, and now – at 76 his singularly alternative energy undiminished – he stands a beneficent elder statesman of the music. […] Through lovely archive footage, and interviews with fellow travellers like Ornette Coleman as well as the man himself, ‘Arrows Into Infinity’ paints a picture of an artist in search of  spiritual truth and whose gift to us is music ‘that flows like a river’, as Herbie Hancock so aptly puts it.
Garry Booth, BBC Music Magazine
 
Water is a recurring motif in the narrative of ‘Arrows Into Infinity’. The archival footage from the early 60s to the present indicates that a component of Lloyd’s sound has always been a liquid phrasing and fluid lyricism. Dorothy Darr (Mrs. Lloyd) directed this film with an insider’s eye and ear to a gentle but deep soul.
Kirk Silsbee, DownBeat
“A music documentary that raises the bar for the genre.”
- Chicago Reader  

Arrows Into Infinity, a film by Dorothy Darr and Jeffery Morse, is a striking documentary portrait of Charles Lloyd. It chronicles the arc of an improviser’s still-unfolding life, moving through time with memories, archive footage and music, lots of music.

Lloyd’s story is a special one, a tale of musical discoveries and popular successes, of retreat into the wilderness and exultant return. Charles’s odyssey, moreover, has intersected with important moments in jazz history. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and had early contact both to masters of an increasingly sophisticated jazz tradition – the Ellington and Basie bands were frequent visitors – and the raw expression of the blues. Booker Little was a childhood friend, Phineas Newborn a mentor. In his teens Lloyd hit the road with Howlin’ Wolf.

On the West Coast, he befriended Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Billy Higgins in a period when blueprints for musical freedom were redrawn. Replacing Eric Dolphy in Chico Hamilton’s group, he rapidly gained a reputation as an exceptional saxophonist and a composer of strikingly original melodies. His own groups drew together some of the most exciting players of the day, and his late 60s quartet with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette made an impact at many levels, playing opposite Hendrix and Janis Joplin at the Fillmore Auditorium, touring Europe’s festivals to great acclaim, making a now-legendary foray into the Soviet Union, and selling a million copies of their Forest Flower album, a massive FM radio hit. At the peak of his popularity, disillusioned with the implications of “success”, Charles Lloyd suddenly retreated from the limelight, preferring to play his saxophones and flutes in the mountain forests of Big Sur.

Although he occasionally played on the college circuit in the 1980s, accompanying writers and poets, sightings of him in jazz contexts were rare for two decades. A tentative return to public service was made in the company of pianist Michel Petrucciani. But it was the 1989 ECM recording Fish Out Of Water, with Bobo Stenson, Palle Danielsson and Jon Christensen which signalled a new beginning. Since then Lloyd has led a succession of outstanding bands including the recent quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland and the Sangam trio with Harland and Zakir Hussain. These musicians contribute their thoughts about Charles Lloyd’s work to this film – as do Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Robbie Robertson, Jack DeJohnette, Don Was, John Densmore, Jim Keltner, Geri Allen, Larry Grenadier, Alicia Hall Moran, Stanley Crouch, Manfred Eicher, Michael Cuscuna, Arthur Monroe and Ayuko Babu.

Archive musical performances in Arrows Into Infinity include Charles Lloyd with the Cannonball Adderley Sextet in 1964 and the classic Lloyd Quartet with Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette and Cecil McBee (and subsequently Ron McClure) filmed at shows from 1966-1968. DeJohnette is also seen and heard in duo with Charles. Drums and drummers have been crucial in Lloyd’s music and there is live and studio footage of Lloyd with Billy Higgins, and the Sangam trio with Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland. Most of Charles’ latter-day bands are featured. We see duets with Michel Petrucciani, the quintet with John Abercrombie, Geri Allen, Larry Grenadier and Billy Hart, the New Quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers and Eric Harland (augmented at one point by singer Alicia Hall Moran) and more. As Mike Figgis, film director, has observed: “Arrows gives a rare insight into the life of one of contemporary music’s giants. The film finds a satisfying balance between documentary and exquisite live performance. There were times when I felt like clapping.”

*

Painter and visual artist Dorothy Darr has exhibited her work and won awards, and is in private collections around the world. She has co-produced several of Charles Lloyd’s ECM recordings and contributed artwork to all of them. Her three earlier documentary films – Memphis Is In Egypt (1996), Home (2004) and Ben Ingram vs the State of Mississippi (2009) – are also related to Lloyd’s life and work.

Producer and editor Jeffery Morse is the founder of Deepfield, Inc, a multimedia company which designs, produces and implements a variety of media from websites to videos and interactive multimedia. He was awards for his work including the John Muir Gold Award at the Yosemite International Film Festival and the Seven Summits Award at the Mountain Film Festival.

Arrows Into Infinity is available in DVD and Blu-ray formats. Running time 113 minutes. Subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian.