Song of the Day: Charles Lloyd and The Marvels - Ramblin'

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels have released Ramblin’ a rollicking version of Ornette Coleman’s tune which is the first single from the legendary saxophonist and NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd’s forthcoming album Tone Poem out March 12 via Blue Note Records. The vinyl edition of the album will be the first new release to be featured as part of the acclaimed Tone Poet Audiophile Vinyl Series with the vinyl supervised by Joe Harley. Fittingly, it was Lloyd who first dubbed Harley the “Tone Poet.”

The Marvels’ unique sound weaves several threads of American music—Jazz, Blues, Americana, Country, and Rock—into a thrilling and uplifting musical hybrid apropos of a visionary who sees no lines of demarcation in his music: “That wouldn’t be right for the tradition I serve,” Lloyd says. “You must have your elixir, and the elixir is in sound and tone. When you’re at the feet of the Universe, she will always bless and take care of us. It’s not politicians we need but sages. Many have their hand out for something, but I try to let my heart be filled so I want for nothing. I live in awe, drunk with the music”. Charles Lloyd released last year his live album 8: Kindred Spirits (Live from the Lobero), as a part of his 80th Birthday celebrations. This album was one of our Favorite Live Albums of 2020.

Listen to Charles Lloyd & The Marvels new single Ramblin’ from their forthcoming album Tone Poem:

Lloyd debuted his collective The Marvels—featuring Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass, and Eric Harland on drums—on the 2016 album I Long To See You with special guests Norah Jones and Willie Nelson, and reconvened the band for 2018’s Vanished Gardens which featured Lucinda Williams on half the album. On Tone Poem, his sixth Blue Note album since returning to the label in 2015, Lloyd presents The Marvels without guest vocalists for the first time on this dynamic nine-song set featuring new Lloyd originals alongside pieces by Ornette Coleman, Thelonious Monk, Leonard Cohen, Gabor Szabo, and Bola de Nieve.