He’s a jazz legend who’s been making music for more than seven decades.
Charles Lloyd has played with virtually every jazz great since the 1960’s. Perhaps a better way of putting it is that they’ve played with him.
Lloyd is celebrating his 87th birthday with a concert at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theater this weekend.
His lifelong love of jazz started as a child.
"A jazz station came in from New Orleans...I guess the wattage was enough it could reach me in Memphis. I put the radio on and I'd hear Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and all that stuff. I got kinda bitten by the cobra, so to speak," said Lloyd.
As a child, he thought he wanted to sing. "I remember I was on an amateur show, and I won second prize. I was walking down the road in my neighborhood," said Lloyd. "I remember a girl was approaching me and she said I didn't deserve that prize," he laughed. "I kind of had to agree with her. She told me a truth. I always wanted to be a singer, but I didn't have the voice for it."
But jazz spoke to him, he said, and he knew he wanted to play it. "It was the only thing that made sense to me. I already was perceptive in looking at the world and it was a dog's curly tail. You weren't going to straighten that thing out," said Lloyd. "So, I decided maybe I can with the beauty of music. I just had a bee in my bonnet, I guess. I kept bugging my mother to get me a saxophone. Finally, when I was nine, she got me one."
His love of music took him to USC, where he studied music. Then, as a performer, he lived in New York, Malibu, and Big Sur, before finally settling in the hills of Montecito.
Lloyd talked about why, with ever-changing musical tastes, jazz has endured. "It's our indigenous art form and you go exploring. You don't just sing a trite song and leave it at that. You get to explore the harmony, the rhythms of it."
Lloyd said he is constantly inspired to create new work. "I go hiking in the mountains (or) I can be in bed asleep and something will come to me," said the musician. "I'll get up in the morning and go to the piano and try to work it out. It's like finding these holy grails and lost worlds."
Even though he’s been performing for seven decades, Lloyd admitted he still gets a few pre-show flutters.
"I'm always nervous before I play. I never got over that. I have a case of the nerves," said Lloyd. "Then once I get on stage, it seems like I get met by the Creator. I go into this zone, or this world, and when I go in there, I'm found."
Lloyd said he feels lucky to be living in such a wonderful place and still making music.
"I've been here over 50 years now and it shocks me because I had no idea time had gone by like that. I still think I'm a teenager, trying to learn this music. So, I never got good enough to quit. Somehow, I look up, and people seem to appreciate what I do."
Lloyd will celebrate his 87th birthday and his 20th concert at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theater Friday night. The show features the Charles Lloyd Delta Trio, which includes Lloyd, pianist Jason Moran, and guitarist Marvin Sewell.
