Charles Lloyd & The Marvels Present a Multifaceted ‘Tone Poem’

True to its title, Charles Lloyd & The Marvels’ album unfolds orchestrally, tracing various musical phrases and themes through a sonic landscape that evokes bright or pensive moodiness, joyous contemplation, and searching prayerfulness. While all of Tone Poem soars through the collisions and convergences of Lloyd’s swirling saxophone, Bill Frisell’s crystalline guitar notes, Greg Leisz’s shimmering pedal steel, Reuben Rogers’ smoothly probing bass, and Eric Harland’s vibrant drumming, each tune flows along its own path like a stanza exploring the freshets and rivulets of its own cosmic geography.

Exuberant and playful, the group’s take on Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin’” opens with exultant shouts and whoops floating over Leisz’s bending steel chords that resemble a train rolling down a track. There’s a New Orleans feel to the tune, and Frisell’s fuzz guitar riffs lay down a rocking, shimmering psychedelic feel that propels the tune.

Lloyd puts down his sax and picks up his alto flute on the jaunty, though contemplative, “Dismal Swamp.” Lloyd’s ever-circling flute and Harland’s drums play call and response with each other as the tune spirals to its climax. On the title track Lloyd’s sax meanders through the opening measures before settling into a bright amble for the remainder of the tune. The group’s take on Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood” forms the centerpiece of the album, with its lush blanket of sound, while the album closes with Lloyd’s own composition, “Prayer,” a tonal exploration of the many moods evoked in an act of prayer.

Tone Poem delivers bracing moments of clarity, aching cries of anguish, cleansing waves of sonic purity, and ebullient surges of joy.