Lloyd McNeill Quartet - 1969 - Asha

Lloyd McNeill Quartet

1969

Asha

01. Asha 8:45

02. As A Matter Of Fact 4:53

03. Two-Third's Pleasure 5:53

04. Dig Where Dat's At! 3:27

05. St. Margaret's Church 6:50

06. Effervescence 6:51

07. Warmth Of A Sunny Day 10:22

Bass – Steve Novosel

Percussion – Eric Gravatt

Percussion – Paul Hawkins

Piano – Gene Rush 

Flute – Lloyd McNeill

Lloyd McNeill is a composer, flutist, poet, photographer, teacher, and globally celebrated visual artist. He is regarded by jazz musicians as an innovator on his chosen instrument. Between 1969 and 1978, he self-released several albums --including 1969's Asha, 1970's Washington Suite, 1976's Treasures, and 1978's Tori -- that are considered classics by improvising musicians as well as critics for their innovative meld of vanguard and spiritual jazz, folk, blues, free improv, and modernist classical technique. They are considered classics by musicians and many critics for their innovative meld of vanguard and spiritual jazz, folk, blues, free improv, and modernist classical technique. McNeill's last recorded outing was 1998's X.Tem.Por.E, in collaboration with pianist Richard Kimball. McNeill is also a prolific, internationally renowned painter and visual artist; his work has been exhibited from Paris and New York to Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio. His first five recordings have been remastered and reissued by the U.K.'s Soul Jazz/Universal Sound label.

McNeill was born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. He studied music at Dunbar High School before joining the U.S Navy, where he served as a hospital corpsman. Upon discharge he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and majored in art. He also played music there -- conga drum, notably, though he was already a proficient flutist. He worked with the Lloyd Terry Band, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton. McNeill graduated from Morehouse in 1961, and his senior exhibit drew the attention of James A. Porter, chairman of the art department at Howard University. Porter offered him a full-tuition scholarship, and McNeill became the school's first MFA student. While at Howard, he studied everything from fresco painting and line drawing to easel painting. In addition to visual art, he undertook advanced flute studies with Eric Dolphy in 1963 during a year at Dartmouth as artist in residence.

McNeill moved to Paris in 1964 with saxophonist Andrew White, a Howard classmate and close friend. He played flute in a variety of settings, and studied at Paris' L'École Nationale des Beaux Arts. While living there, he met and became close with Pablo Picasso and his wife Jacqueline until their respective deaths. He also found time to play music, though mostly in Cannes, collaborating with Guatemalan guitarist and singer/songwriter Julio Arenas Menas.

In 1976, he formed the Baobab Sounds label to release Treasures. His sextet included McBee, Ray Armando, Dom Salvador, Brian Brake, and Porthino. He was also recruited by organist Charles Earland to play on his 1976 album The Great Pyramid and Brazilian saxophonist Paulo Moura's Confusão Urbana, Suburbana E Rural.

Having studied Art and Zoology in Morehouse College, Atlanta, he moved on to be the first recipient of Howard University's MFA degree (1963). In 1964-5, he did further study in Lithography at Paris' L'Ecole Nationale Des Beaux Arts. During his residence in France, he spent a considerable amount of time with Pablo Picasso and his wife, Jacqueline in Cannes. He has also studied music composition privately with the composer Hale Smith, music theory and flute technique with the jazz musician Eric Dolphy, and classical flute technique and repertoire with Harold Jones. McNeill taught at several institutes of higher education, and was Professor Emeritus of Mason Gross School of the Arts, at Rutgers University, New Jersey, having retired in 2001. Through the 1970s, and in addition to his position in Art, McNeill also taught Afro-American Music History, private flute lessons, and was instrumental in launching the Jazz Studies Program at Rutgers University.

McNeill has exhibited his paintings and drawings at several galleries and colleges in the U.S. Northeast. He published two volumes of poems: Blackline: A Collection of Poems, Drawings and Photographs and After the Rain: A Collection of New Poems. In 2007, Lloyd McNeill was chosen by the USPS to design a postage stamp for the celebration of Kwanzaa 2009