Charles Lloyd — History Making!
By Ashley Kahn
Charles Lloyd, at the age of 87, speaks with humor and humility and in unbroken, elliptical runs. At times, he tends to add in a self-amused chuckle. Responding to a query about the sudden news of his sweep of DownBeat’s top Critics Poll awards — an occurrence that’s never happened in the magazine’s 90-year run — he admits being happy about the news, but also a bit challenged to help explain it.
By Bill Milkowski
By Gary Fukushima
By Ted Panken
By Allen Morrison
By Ammar Kalifa
By Suzanne Lorge
Alto saxist/composer/arranger/educator Greg Ward’s win in the Critics Poll Rising Star category, at age 42, was a long time coming but inevitable given prolific activity in myriad aggregations. Notwithstanding recent tenure as an associate professor at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, he’s maintained a hectic schedule freelancing with The Occidental Brothers, drummer Makaya McCraven, bassist Linda May Han Oh, drummer Mike Reed’s groups (Loose Assembly, Flesh and Bone and People, Places and Things), and singer Alyssa Allgood as well as his own band, Rogue Parade.
Successful plate-spinning requires equilibrium and Ward likes to enjoy life and smell the coffee, even if he hasn’t touched caffeine for over a year. It was the scent of single malt scotch that aided rumination as we convened for his first Blindfold Test in Chicago.
