Of Course, Of Course

Charles Lloyd arrived at this session already marked as jazz's newest and most closely watched young star, having built his reputation in Chico Hamilton's group and then as musical director of the Cannonball Adderley Sextet before striking out as a leader. For this quartet date he assembled a remarkably young and forward-looking band - guitarist Gabor Szabo, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, both the latter on loan from Miles Davis's group - and the unusual addition of guitar in place of piano gave the record a lighter, more open harmonic texture that let Lloyd's tenor and flute roam freely. The material mixes Lloyd originals with standards by Irving Berlin and by Styne and Cahn, and several of the originals, including the blues-drenched closer, reach back to Lloyd's teenage years playing Memphis blues alongside musicians like B.B. King and Bobby Bland. The quartet's deep musical rapport - described by Lloyd himself as a four-way conversation in which each player anticipates and spurs the others - gives the album an unusually spontaneous, conversational feel even on the more composed pieces. Coming on the heels of his acclaimed debut as a leader, this album consolidated Lloyd's standing as a leading voice of the new jazz mainstream, one capable of bridging hard-bop roots with the freer, more exploratory language emerging in the mid-1960s. It remains a touchstone of Lloyd's early-to-mid-1960s quartet period and a key document of the pre-Keith Jarrett edition of his working band, admired for its lyricism, its blues feeling, and the chemistry among its four musicians.