Lloyd McNeill - 1976 - Treasures

Lloyd McNeill

1976

Treasures

01. Griot 16:50

02. As A Matter Of Fact 5:48

03. Salvation Army 11:16

04. You Don't Know What Love Is 10:15

Bass – Cecil McBee

Drums – Brian Brake, Portinho

Flute – Lloyd McNeill

Percussion – Ray Armando

Piano – Dom Salvador

Without a doubt, the last decade of record collecting’s surge into the popular consciousness has (finally) brought about the recognition of underappreciated Jazz Geniuses. Voracious suppliers of organic cosmic sounds – acclaim well overdue for their accomplishments – have been brought into the mainstream. The list is expansive and branches through various movements and stylistic impressions. Luckily, one of the many names brought to light was Lloyd McNeill. Born in Washington, DC in 1935, the flutist, composer, and painter has passed away at the age of 86.

McNeill was a mainstay of the more liberating side of the jazz spectrum from the late-sixties on. With limited sideman work for a comparative basis, listeners were introduced to McNeill’s recorded work as a leader–granting an unshrouded interpretation into the artist’s expansive worldview. His handful of LPs present compositions unrestrained by the at-times-paradoxical impression that Free Music must be totally lacking of structure, key, or syncopation. McNeill-led ensembles – locked into unfathomable funk – explored every melodic direction a tune could take, keeping the listener moving the entire time. A blissful menagerie of motorik and modulation.

McNeill’s Treasures (1976) remains the most comprehensive in displaying the merits of his artistic genius. As a painter (well-respected by friend Pablo Picasso, mind you) McNeill draws in the record’s holder with gorgeous abstractions of the recruited ensemble: Cecil McBee, Dom Salvador, Ray Armando, Portinho, Brian Brake. Alongside, a full body portrait of the artist gives the impression that McNeill was quite-possibly the coolest guy you’d ever meet. Such distinctive design only bolsters the wholly original contents of the LP’s grooves. The mind expanding “Griot” is a 17-minute epic that runs the gambit from deep spiritual heaviness to triumphant fanfare to a sure-strutted swagger that dances the listener into the blues-y shuffle of “As a Matter of Fact.” For the uninitiated and familiar alike, however, side two’s “Salvation Army” should be thrown on in memory of McNeill. A brilliant and bouncy affair, the group burrows into a victorious march with a groove that refuses to stop. The perfect celebration of the immense talent and vision that is Lloyd McNeill.

Originally released on the artists’ own private press Baobab label in New York, the album is a serious collectors’ piece, a heavyweight and fascinating fusion of deep spiritual jazz with Brazilian and rhythms and melodies. The album has been out of print for nearly 40 years. 

This groundbreaking album is the culmination of Lloyd McNeill’s many years involved with Brazilian musicians and features the great percussionist Nana Vasconcelos alongside fellow Brazilian’s Portinho and Dom Salvador alongside US jazz musicians including bassist Cecil McBee.

McNeill grew up during the era of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and his life and work is a reflection of those ideals. All of his music was only ever released on his own private-press record label, echoing the Civil Rights and African-American themes of the era - black economic empowerment and self-sufficiency – and there is a beautiful spirituality in all his music.

In the late 1960s McNeill became teacher of both jazz and painting at the New Thing Art and Architecture Center in Washington and in 1969 was the first African-American professor hired to teach African-American Music History, at Rutgers University.