Lloyd, a deeply serious spiritual artist with a great communicator’s ability, is able to paint pictures like few others in jazz. Via flute on ‘Journey Up River’, the first part of the ‘Hagar Suite’, he provides with pianist Moran’s tumbling accompaniment (and later tambourine) an episodic element not often found in his general approach, a feature throughout the suite that provides a distinctive thread to this album. Turning 75 this year it’s interesting that Lloyd has chosen with this new studio album, recorded last April, to reduce his quartet to a duo, its simplicity via the time machine of piano styles that Moran provides, in the fictive sense invoking a line in jazz piano almost taking the listener, say on Moran’s introduction to ‘Mood Indigo’, to Harlem in the 1930s. Lloyd is very bluesy on some tracks, but he’s capable of altering the mood throughout and the blues become a miniature requiem on one notable standout ‘I Shall Be Released’, a tribute to Levon Helm of The Band. [...] So all in all a very personal, wonderful sounding album, full of lovely moments, an oasis of contemplation in a world full of tumult, and every bit as good as the marvellous Mirror.
Stephen Graham, Marlbank
Das Zentrum des Albums bildet […] die fünfteilige ‚Hagar Suite’, die die Lebensstationen von Lloyds Ururgroßmutter Hagar thematisiert: Sie wurde als Zehnjährige aus ihrer Familie herausgerissen und als Sklavin verkauft. Es verwundert nicht, dass Lloyds Spiel in diesem Stück die größte Intensität erreicht, oft ganz puristisch begleitet von Moran auf dem Tambourin oder in eindringlich repetierten Einzeltönen auf dem Flügel. Doch auch in den anderen Nummern zeigt er, dass er viel zu erzählen hat und trotz seines Alters ungeheuer kraftvoll und virtuos unterwegs ist. […] Und moranzeht traumwandlerisch sicher mit, steuert bluesige und funkige Begleitpatterns bei oder fegt wie sein Vorbild Don Pullen über die tasten. Das ist Duojazz at its best.
Mario-Felix Vogt, Stereo
He left jazz for a while, but since he began recording again on ECM, in 1989, he’s attained a rare level of mastery and ease. His solos have a smart, conversational fluency, like someone thinking out loud—which could be said of any good improviser, but Lloyd’s playing has an especially tangible sense of personality. His partner here, Jason Moran, 38, is arguably the preeminent jazz pianist of his generation, fluent in hip-hop rhythms as well as swing. He and Lloyd have been playing together for several years in the latter’s quartet, but this is their first recording of duets. Moran is a great foil for Lloyd, sometimes spiky, sometimes enveloping, pushing here, coaxing there.
Bruce Handy, Vanity Fair
In a set that runs the gamut from well-known standards by George Gershwin, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington to relatively more contemporary fare from Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson, Lloyd and Moran demonstrate the kind of empathy and trust that only comes from considerable time spent together. There are some spiritual and aesthetic similarities to Lloyd's deeply personal ‘Which Way is East’ (ECM, 2004), recorded with Billy Higgins at the saxophonist's home just a few months before the drummer's passing; but here, with Lloyd playing just saxophones and flutes, and Moran focusing solely on piano (with the occasional injection of tambourine), there's a greater intrinsic focus, albeit with a similar spirit of adventure. [...]
At the center of the 69-minute set is Lloyd's five-part nearly thirty-minute ‘Hagar Suite’, which references the multitude of touchstones that have long been a part of Lloyd's music and reflects the saxophonist's own diverse lineage. The meditative a cappella bass flute that opens ‘Journey Up River’ reflects Lloyd's partly Native American blood line, but when Moran enters with a pedal tone-centered accompaniment it slowly assumes trace elements of blues and middle eastern concerns/ Lloyd pulls back to allow the pianist to come to the fore—even as Moran injects the occasional sharp dissonance for tension—before resuming, layering darker lines that lead to a soft but unexpected pause from both players, as a change in key shifts first to a more positive vibe, but ultimately turns to darker territory once again. [...]
If ‘Hagar's Song’ is a revealing record for Moran, it's equally so for Lloyd who, as he approaches 75 in March, 2013, has simply never sounded better. His soft, buttery and immediately recognizable tone, and an ability to create flurries of sound that contrast with the tarter sheets of sound of an early influence, saxophonist John Coltrane, are combined with a more melodic bent that's still unafraid to skew into more angular terms. [...]
Despite a career that was already well-established when he was recruited by Lloyd, following Moran's progress with the saxophonist over three group recordings, and now this outstanding duo recording, also demonstrates that as much as Moran has benefited from the partnership so, too, has Lloyd. There's little that's predictable about either player, but with Hagar's Song—imbued, as it is, with constants of surprise, simpatico and stellar performances—both Lloyd and Moran have made the leap to a new plateau.
John Kelman, All About Jazz
Das ist ein Duo von einer Innigkeit, die selbst die abgebrühtesten Jazz-Hörer fast zu Tränen rühren kann. Der Saxophonist und Mentor vieler Jazzstars, Charles Lloyd, und der Pianist Jason Moran spielen auf dieser CD so aufregend und ungeschönt-zärtlich zusammen, wie man es auch auf ganz hohem Niveau nur selten erlebt.
Wie sie hier etwa in Klassikern von Duke Ellington („Mood indigo“) und dessen Alter ego Billy Strayhorn („Pretty girl“), in Stücken von Gershwin („Bess, you is my woman now“) und Earl Hines („Rosetta“) sowie in Instrumentalversionen je eines Songs von Bob Dylan („I shall be released“) und Brian Wilson („God only knows“) einander mit den Stimmen umkreisen, umtanzen und im nächsten Augenblick sanft miteinander verschmelzen, ist Takt für Takt ein Hochgenuss. Souverän setzen beide Musiker ihre Spieltechnik nie ein, um zu beeindrucken, sondern durchweg, um Momente von zwingender Atmosphäre zu schaffen. Das tun sie, und ihre Musik entfaltet eine große, ungemein natürlich wirkende und viel im Blues wurzelnde Schönheit. Vielleicht sogar: Anmut. Letzteres auf jeden Fall bei jener Suite, die der CD den Namen gab. Die „Hagar Suite“ ist Lloyds Ur-Ur-Großmutter gewidmet, die als Zehnjährige ihren Eltern entrissen und an einen Sklavenbesitzer verkauft worden war, dann weiterverkauft an einen anderen Sklavenhalter, der sie schwängerte, als sie 14 war und dann wieder weiterreichte. Erst vor kurzem erfuhr Lloyd von diesem Schicksal, und er widmete der Vorfahrin - und damit den Vielen, die solch eine Lebensgeschichte teilen - ein fünfsätziges Musikstück, das in der vorliegenden Aufnahme fast eine halbe Stunde dauert und das Kernstück der CD ist. Bewegende Musik, die die vielen ergreifenden Momente dieser CD um eine Dimension erweitert, die wesentlich zur Geschichte des Jazz gehört.
Roland Spiegel, BR-Klassik
„La leçon de sérénité de Charles Lloyd – Sans doute un musicien doit-il atteindre le grand âge pour jouer avec pareille s´rénité. Le saxophoniste et flûtiste Charles Lloyd, 75ans, nous offre avec cet Hagar’s Song une véritable promenade poétique. Une balade qu’il conduit en duo avec le pianiste Jason Moran (38 ans) et dans laquelle les deux jazzmen retiennent L#essentiel des mélodies, les épurant au maximum, portant un accent ici, une inflexion là, mais laissant surtout les notes respirer.
Yann Mens, La Croix du Nord
Kürzlich hat Lloyd ein neues Album vorgelegt, ‘Hagar’s Song’, ein Duo-Album mit dem Pianisten Jason Moran, das den ganzen Kosmos von Lloyds Musik herbeizitiert. Im Mittelpunkt steht eine fünfteilige Suite, mit der Lloyd seiner Ur-Ur-Großmutter ein Denkmal setzt. Sie wuchs als Sklavin auf, wurde mit zehn Jahren von ihrer Familie getrennt und flussaufwärts verkauft mit 14 vom neuen Besitzer geschwängert. Gerahmt wird die Suite von sieben weiteren Kompositionen vom musikalischen Hausaltar des Saxophonisten, Jazzpretiosen von Billy Strayhorn und Duke Ellington, sowie zwei programmatisch zu verstehenden Perlen der amerikanischen Popmusik: ‚I Shall Be Released’ von Bob Dylan und ‚God Only Knows’ von den Beach Boys, dessen elegante Schwermut wie geschaffen sit für die samtige Wärme von Lloyds Saxofonspiel.
Stefan Hentz, Der Tagesspiegel
A wonderful album that for all its sometime dark undercurrents straddles musical genres and eras, with a light hearted moment in a delightful version of Earl Hines’ ‘Rosetta’, and brings together two musicians from different generations who play with an empathy and understanding of great magnitude.
Nick Lea, Jazz Views
Lloyd and Moran are sympathetic partners in reworking jazz standards, as with a contemplative take on Billy Strayhorn’s ‘Pretty Girl’ and a slippery run through Duke Ellington’s ‘Mood Indigo’ that rolls out of a bluesy turn from Moran. A pair of modern pop classics close the record in a shimmering tribute to the Band’s Levon Helm with ‘I Shall Be Released’ and a sensitively drawn run through the Beach Boys’ ‘God Only Knows’. But Lloyd’s own compositional voice often shines brightest, such as with the abstract rumble of ‘Pictogram’ and the rich, five-part ‘Hagar Suite’, which features the disc’s most atmospheric moments with the saxophonist switching to flute as Moran matches him each step of the way.
Chris Barton, L.A. Times
The unique give-and-take between Lloyd and Moran comes into bold relief on Hagar’s Song, their first duo album following three with the quartet, the last of which also featured Greek singer Maria Farantouri. Lloyd, who turned 75 in March, and Moran, 38, couldn’t have more different artistic resolutions: The saxophonist thrives on a centered, spiritually driven, Zen-like approach, sticking close to melodies that he worries with slippery arpeggios and sudden thickenings of tone, while the pianist is a rhythmically driven innovator with an appetite for music from all eras and genres. What Lloyd and Moran share is an unerring ability to get to the emotional heart of a song, and that’s where their contrasting attacks converge, whether plugging into the the bluesy melancholy of Billie Holiday staple ‘You’ve Changed’ or stepping out freestyle on Earl Hines’ ‘Rosetta’, wich Lloyd heats with streaming notes and Moran lifts with buoyant, Hines-like clusters. ‘Hagar’s Song’ is essentially two albums in one: a selection of smartly reworked jazz standards and pop classics, and a nearly 30-minute tone poem, Hagar Suite.
Lloyd Sachs, Jazz Times
Lloyd ist ein Priester der Melodie. Einer, der sich in einzelnen Tönen festhakt, ihre Konturen ausmalt, die Oberflächen ziseliert und mit der samtigen Wärme seines Spiels anheizt – rau und zerbrechlich, tief und hintergründig. Mit Moran durchspielt er eine enorme Palette von Emotionen: Wut und Trauer, Verzweiflung und eine trotzige Form von Lebensfreude. […] In Jason Moran hat er einen idealen Spielpartner, beweglich und souverän in allen Facetten, ausdrucksstark und klug, ein Pianist, der die Fackel des Jazz ins neue Jahrhundert trägt.
Stefan Hentz, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Breakthrough jazz usually arrives earlier in a career than later. Not with Charles Lloyd. Hagar’s Song is unquestionably the greatest recording in his prodigious output going back to the ‘60s. Yet it comes the year the flutist/saxophonist turned 75-years-old this March 15. But there’s still more to it. The 14 song collection — ranging from Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo” to Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” dedicated by Lloyd to the late Levon Helm — is equally one of jazz’s finest moments in the past 20 or 30 years, an incomparable cycle of lyrical blues-tinged duets resulting from the deeply intuitive rapport existing between Lloyd, who years ago espoused Transcendental Meditation and pianist Jason Moran.
Dubbed a “new master” by the New Yorker, the 38-year-old Moran’s playing binds together the two-handed style of jazz piano’s roots — given a strutting workout here in “Rosetta” by Earl Hines, arguably jazz piano’s leading virtuoso — with a contemporary inclination to soar away into abstract sound. Lloyd himself has never been one of jazz’s defining soloists but he is among its most soulful. His moaning flute playing “Hagar’s Song,” a five-part suite referring to his great-great grandmother Hagar, a slave — pulses like a beating heart.
Peter Goddard, Toronto Star
La vérité est qu’on n’en demaindat pas tant. Le diques de Charles Lloyd sont devenus, c’est vrai, de précieux élixirs où un poète-derviche-so(u)rcier lave le jazz de tous les clichés qui, inévitablement, l’encombrent après plus d’un siècle de rumination continue. Mais là, on atteint à la quintessence d’un dépouillement, à un point de non-retour où l’on ne souhaite plus rien d’autre que dresser sa tente et s’abstenir de toute gesticulation mentale inutile dans un exercice de pure contemplation. [...] Soit un espace où tout bascule,où le rêve devient la plus folle des réalités, où singulièrement la musique a le pouvoir, occulte ou enfantin, d’unir les contraires et d’enjamber les interdits. D’inverser les rôles aussi – d’ où l’impression diffuse, au sein de ce duo entre un saxophoniste et un pianiste, que le vrai souffleur, c’est l’autre. Comme si le piano de JasonMoran fournissait, sans la moindre sécheresse ou aporie, la matière première d’une exaltante démiurgie dont le saxophone de Charles Lloyd constituerait le principe organisateur.
Michel Barbey, Le Temps
Saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianist Jason Moran are generations apart in age but musically they might as well be brothers. You can hear each musician sparking the other’s creativity throughout this elegant duo session. All you need to know about the rapport between Lloyd and Moran can be found on their luminous rendition of the Beach Boys’ classic ‘God Only Knows’. Moran takes startling harmonic turns, his phrases floating out of time as Lloyd teases the melody – it sounds like a version of the song you’d hear in a dream. Then Moran suddenly settles in to a steady rhythm that echoes the original as Lloyd takes the familiar tune straight on. It’s a perfomance that yields as much surprise as it does grace. That sense of each musician being willing to follow the other to unsuspected territory permeates the entire session. [...] Moran has been a member of Lloyd’s quartet since 2008. Regarded as one of the best modern pianists, Moran has the entire history of jazz at his fingertips. He sounds as natural playing stride phrases on a surprisingly jaunty version of ‘Mood Indigo’ as he does playing rambling, dissonant figures on Lloyd’s ‘Pictogram’. It’s hard to think of a lovelier musical dialogue than the one between Lloyd and Moran.
John Frederick Moore, Jazziz
