Charles Lloyd teams with a different band here, replacing
Bobo Stenson's piano with
John Abercrombie's guitar, bassist
Anders Jormin with
Dave Holland, and drummer
Billy Hart with
Billy Higgins. The title references the feeling on the album in that
Lloyd was going for more of a jazz sound, something more basic and lyrical as opposed to exotic and unusual. Of the eight tunes here, six are
Lloyd originals, one is a cover of the
Elvis Costello/
Burt Bacharach hit "God Give Me Strength," and one is the
Billy Strayhorn classic, "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," which follows a gorgeous reprise of
Lloyd's own "Forest Flower" from the '60s. The
Costello/
Bacharach tune is the most telling for this band in that they take a standard pop melody and turn it into a modal exploration of harmony and chromatic invention. As
Lloyd plays variations on the melody, the band turns one harmonic sequence into a pillar from
Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" and back. The "Forest Flower" suite is awesome. The interplay between
Lloyd and
Abercrombie is fully realized as they trade flatted sevenths and then
Abercrombie moves into augmented ninths and diminished sixths before both
Lloyd and he solo against the harmonic body of the tune while retaining its melodic sensibility. It's just breathtaking. ~ Thom Jurek