Grammy Award Winner Charles Lloyd to Play 3 Shows at 2018 Newport Jazz Festival

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team

Charles Lloyd will perform three sets at the Newport Jazz Festival

Grammy award winner Charles Lloyd will be the Artist-in-Residence at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival and perform three concerts at Fort Adams State Park.

"We had a chance to talk and get to know each other not as producer to a musician or vice-versa, but as two human beings related to one another by mutual respect and admiration. His wife, Dorothy, called me this past fall to let me know that Charles would be 80 years old in March 2018 and would like to celebrate with something special at the Newport Jazz Festival. The idea came up to have Charles as Artist-in-Residence. We were excited about the project as we haven't had a musician in residence for many years and the thought of making this personal milestone for Charles the centerpiece of this year's festival was impossible to resist. Charles' music is always that of a group, not of a rhythm section supporting his virtuosity as a saxophonist. There is only one Charles Lloyd and I am glad he will be with us this year," said Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein.

Lloyd will perform his first set on August 3 with his group Sangram, his second set on August 4 with drummer Eric Harland and his third set on August 5 with singer Lucinda Williams.

About Lloyd

Lloyd, who just turned 80 on March 15, last played at the festival in 2016.

He started playing the alto saxophone around the age of nine.

He grew up in a home that served as a boarding house for African-American bandleaders, including Duke Ellington and Count Basie.

He played R&B and blues gigs with masters like B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, and Howlin' Wolf, worked with trumpeter Booker Little and studied with the piano wunderkind, Phineas Newborn.

He moved to California in 1956, studied music at University of Southern California, changed from alto to tenor saxophone, and befriended the iconoclastic avant-garde saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman.

After the runaway success of Forest Flower, Lloyd played rock venues and enjoyed a large following among the youth.

He released a number of critically-acclaimed LPs on Atlantic records during this period, including Dream Weaver, The Flowering, Love-In and Charles Lloyd in Europe. He recorded with the Beach Boys and Canned Heat, and he penned an opera, Moon Man.

During his retirement, Lloyd performed a series of local poetry readings with actor Burgess Meredith, but it was the inspiration of French pianist Michel Petrucciani that motivated Lloyd to come back to the scene in 1981 and release the LPs Montreux 82 and A Night In Copenhagen.

Newport Jazz Festival

The 2018 Newport Jazz Festival will run from August 3 to August 5 at Fort Adams State Park and the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Tickets are on sale now.

Click here for more information.

2017 Newport Jazz Festival - Sunday Highlights

The final day of the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival closed out the weekend with another lineup of solid performances Sunday at Newport’s historical Fort Adams State Park.

MA Educators Association All-State Jazz Band

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