AOTW: Charles Lloyd - WAVES (SP-3044)

[Captain Bacardi]

Charles Lloyd
WAVES
A&M SP-3044

Released 1972

Format: Vinyl/8-Track/Cassette/CD (reissued as 0828)

Produced by Charles Lloyd
Production assisted by Eric Sherman and John Lloyd

Songs:

• 1. TM - 5:03
  2. Pyramid (Tom Trujillo/Charles Lloyd) - 7:06
  3. Majorca - 6:09
  4. Harvest - 9:08
  5. Waves - 5:14
  6. Rishikesha (Charles Lloyd/Michael Love) - 5:13[list:f2635cfc8a]a) Hummingbird
  b) Rishikesh
  c) Seagull

All selections written by Charles Lloyd except where indicated[/list:u:f2635cfc8a]

Musicians:
Charles Lloyd - Tenor Sax, Flute, Alto Flute, Voice
Gabor Szabo - Guitar (1, 3, 4)
Tom Trujillo - Guitar (2, 5, 6)
Wolfgang Melz - Bass
Roberto Miranda - Acoustic Bass (2, 5)
Woodrow Theus II - Drums, Percussion
Mayuto - Percussion
Roger McGuinn - 12-string Guitar (1, 5)
Voices on "TM" - Michael Love (also on "Rishikesh"), Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Billy Hinsche, Pamela Polland

Recorded at Malibu Road; MRI with Gary Ulmer; Intermedia; A&M.

Art Direction & Photography by Roland Young
Illustrations by Masami Taraoka
Design by Chuck Beeson

Special Thanks to Rob Heller, Jerry Rubenstein, Herb & Lani, Henry & Nadine, Michael Jackson and Peter Coonradt.




Capt. Bacardi

 

[Dave]

Fairly decent guest shots on "TM" by a handful of Beach Boys members, and the cute voiced Pamela Pollard... Though the song, drenched by '60's psychedelia, soon to be out-dated, comes off too mawkish... The same goes for Mike Love's mumbo jumbo on "Rishikesh"...

Better to check out an earlier album of Lloyd's on another label, which I believe featured these guys on a better collaboration (or was it a Beach Boys album Charlie played on? I forgot; guess I should have bought it...)

I first had this on Compact Disc, a used copy in a digi-pack, before landing a still-sealed W/L promo copy on vinyl and I really thought this would be a must have to get as a Gabor Szabo "album with others"... And with the exception of a few licks, on "Majorca" which went under other names on Gabor's own albums, as well as with Chico Hamilton, and the happy-sounding "Harvest", it suffers of the weight of the LP's own wearing fatigue...

The 12-string guitar by Byrds member, Roger McGuinn on "TM" and "Waves" is also nice and the collaboration on these two songs seem much comparable with the later utopian antics of his group... Hence the arrangements flow and seem very conversant with one-another in comfortably presenting both guest-artist and song...

However, this record is rendered a bit inessential unless you're a die-hard fan of Charles Lloyd, in which case it does carry a pleasant neo-jazz groove merged with a psychedelic rock bent...

So it just unfortunately runs too adrift from Lloyd's earlier, more jazzier works, while for those into this sort of flower power and post-flower power rock, they may not take well to what would amount to being "too jazz"...


Dave

 

[willfb]

I had seen this band with Tom Trujillo, Sonship Theus and other musicians I can't remember, and Tom Trujillo absolutely scorched the place with some awesome guitar playing. So I got the album, and well, it was a far cry from the music this band could do in person. I have wondered what happened to Tom ever since.