| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Contact: Helen Pinch, Performance Santa Fe Phone: (505) 984 8759 Email: hpinch@performancesantafe.org Promotional Photos Full Press Release |
Santa Fe, NM, October 20, 2022 – Six decades into his professional music career, saxophonist, flutist, composer, and bandleader Charles Lloyd brings his newest endeavor to Santa Fe: Ocean Trio, featuring guitarist Anthony Wilson and pianist Gerald Clayton. The group recently released its first album, Ocean, one third of Lloyd’s ambitious Trio of Trios project. Ocean was received with widespread acclaim, described as “A rich mix from a master enchanter” (The Guardian). Lloyd combines post-bop, free jazz, psychedelic rock, folk, and traditional music in his original compositions to form “a strange and beautiful distillation of the American experience, part abandoned and wild, part immensely controlled and sophisticated.” (New York Times) Lloyd’s unique ability to weave many genres together, evidenced through collaborations with diverse artists such as Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, and the Beach Boys, has led him to widespread crossover acclaim. Performance Santa Fe is honored to present this ambitious new project by one of jazz’s most revered figures.
Charles Lloyd Ocean Trio featuring Gerald Clayton and Anthony Wilson
Saturday, November 12, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.
Lensic Performing Arts Center
$35–$115
To purchase tickets, visit PerformanceSantaFe.org or call (505) 984 8759
Presented through the generosity of Elaine and Michael Brown
Season Sponsors: Ann Murphy Daily and William W. Daily; Leah Gordon
About the Artists
NEA Jazz Master and recipient of the Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Charles Lloyd continues to elevate the art form with each performance and recording. Lloyd was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 15, 1938. He began playing the saxophone at the age of nine. In 1956 Lloyd moved to Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California. During this period, he played in Gerald Wilson’s big band and formed his own group that included Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, Bobby Hutcherson, Scott LaFaro, and Terry Trotter, and joined Chico Hamilton in 1960. In 1964 Lloyd left Hamilton’s group to join alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. He recorded two albums as a leader for Columbia Records, Discovery and Of Course, Of Course. In 1965 Lloyd formed a quartet with pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. It was a meeting of straight-ahead post-bop, free jazz, rock, and world music. Their music quickly caught the attention of jazz fans and critics. They achieved crossover success with young rock fans and became the first jazz group to play in the famed Fillmore in San Francisco.
Following a near death experience in 1986, Lloyd decided to rededicate himself to music after a period of dormancy. In 1989, Lloyd reestablished an active touring schedule and began recording for ECM Records. Noteworthy albums from this period include Fish Out of Water (1990), Canto (1996), Voice In The Night (1999), The Water Is Wide (2000), and Sangam (2004).
Commissioned by Jazztopad in Wroclaw, Poland to write a new composition to premiere at their 2013 festival, Lloyd wrote Wild Man Dance Suite released on Blue Note Records in April 2015. Lloyd then formed a new group called The Marvels featuring Bill Frisell, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland, and Greg Leisz. Passin’ Thru (2017) was recorded partially in Santa Fe in 2016 during Lloyd’s last appearance in-state appearance at the New Mexico Jazz Festival. Jazztopad created additional important commissions for Lloyd, including the 2017 project titled Red Waters, Black Sky, an homage to his great grandmother Sallie Sunflower Whitecloud, who refused to walk the Trail of Tears, and all the indigenous people who had their homelands taken away from them.
In June 2022, Lloyd announced his expansive “Trio of Trios” series. Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on this latest masterwork which encompasses three albums, each presenting him in a different trio setting. The first album in the series, Trios: Chapel, was released June 24 and features guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan. The second, Trios: Ocean, arrived September 23 and features pianist Gerald Clayton and guitarist Anthony Wilson. The third, Trios: Sacred Thread, comes out November 18 and features guitarist Julian Lage and percussionist Zakir Hussain. www.charleslloyd.com
Gerald Clayton, piano, searches for honest expression in every note he plays. With harmonic curiosity and critical awareness, he develops musical narratives that unfold as a result of both deliberate searching and chance uncovering. The four-time GRAMMY-nominated pianist/composer formally began his musical journey at the prestigious Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, where he received the 2002 Presidential Scholar of the Arts Award. Continuing his scholarly pursuits, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance at USC’s Thornton School of Music under the instruction of piano icon Billy Childs, after a year of intensive study with NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron at The Manhattan School of Music. Clayton won second place in the 2006 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition.
Expansion has become part of Clayton’s artistic identity. His music is a celebration of the inherent differences in musical perspectives that promote true artistic synergy. Clayton’s debut recording, Two Shade (ArtistShare), earned a 2010 GRAMMY nomination for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for his arrangement of Cole Porter’s “All of You.” “Battle Circle,” his composition featured on The Clayton Brothers’ recording The New Song and Dance (ArtistShare), received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition in 2011. He received 2012 and 2013 GRAMMY nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Bond: The Paris Sessions (Concord) and Life Forum (Concord), his second and third album releases.
Capturing the truth in each moment’s conception of sound comes naturally to Clayton. The son of beloved bass player and composer John Clayton, he enjoyed a familial apprenticeship from an early age. Clayton honors the legacy of his father and all his musical ancestors through a commitment to artistic exploration, innovation, and reinvention.
Born in Los Angeles in 1968, guitarist and composer Anthony Wilson is known for a body of work that moves fluidly across genres. The son of legendary jazz trumpeter and bandleader Gerald Wilson, his musical lineage has deeply influenced his creative trajectory, compositional choices, instrumental groupings, and the wide-ranging discography that blooms out of them.
His first album — Anthony Wilson (1997) — featured a nine-piece “little big band” and received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Recording. In 2011, Wilson released Seasons, a live record and short film documenting the compositional process and premiere performance of his extended song cycle of the same name, written for and performed on a quartet of luthier John Monteleone’s handcrafted guitars called “The Four Seasons.”
Traveling into, through, and beyond genres, Frogtown (2016) marked a turning point for Wilson as a composer and his debut as a songwriter and singer. Next, Songs and Photographs (2019), entered into conversation Wilson’s distilled, personal musical compositions and his 35mm photography. The work develops from two intertwined paths, one sonic and one visual, that increasingly play complementary roles in Wilson’s creative process.
Over the past two decades, Wilson has joined a diverse roster of jazz masters on their recordings and performances. And while his footing is firmly rooted in the jazz idiom, Wilson pivots with ease into other genres, having contributed his instrumental texture, improvisational authority, and orchestration to albums by pop music legends including Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson.
Wilson was awarded the Thelonious Monk Institute International Composers’ Award in 1995. He has also received commissions from Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the International Association of Jazz Education, the Henry Mancini Institute, and the Jazz Coalition Commission Fund. In 2018, he was selected as a MacDowell Fellow.
About Performance Santa Fe
Performance Santa Fe has been bringing the very best of music, dance, and theater to iconic Santa Fe locations since 1937. Now in its 86th season, the organization upholds excellence in the performing arts and brings joy and enrichment to the community. Alongside its extensive performance season, the organization runs three dynamic, exciting, and inclusive educational programs for students in the community— Arts for Life, the Masterclass Series, and the Field Trip Series. PSF’s 2022-2023 season brings 27 performances to Santa Fe and celebrates the diverse possibilities of artistic expression. Learn more at PerformanceSantaFe.org. Performance Santa Fe is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
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