Lloyd McNeill Quartet - 1970 - Washington Suite

Lloyd McNeill Quartet

1970 

Washington Suite

01. Home Rule 6:03

02. Just 71% Moor 8:21

03. 2504 Cliffborne Pl. 5:57

04. Fountain In The Circle 2:21

05. City Tryptych 16:32

06. Fountain In The Circle 1:42

Bass – Marshall Hawkins

Bassoon – Kenneth Pasmanick

Clarinet – William Huntington

Drums – Eric Gravatt

Electric Piano – Gene Rush

Flute – Lloyd McNeill

French Horn – Orrin Olson

Oboe – Andrew White

Music composed for the Capital Ballet Company, Wash., DC.

Recorded March 22, 1970 at the National Collection of Fine Arts and March 31, at Workshop-Corcoran.

Sometimes you hear a flute used in a composition and immediately your shoulders jump up to cover your ears. It comes off as a cosmetic afterthought that bears no sustenance. NOBODY got time for that!

Lloyd McNeill does it differently. The professor, painter and world-renowned jazz-flutist formed an “enlightened quartet” around 1970 that was in tune with the political climate of the time and reflected the sonic components which were influencing Alice Coltrane, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and electric Miles Davis. Essentially classical music, dance, gospel, funk, soul, and blues. Similar to the contemporary ways that hip-hop, house, disco, boogie and techno keep merging and morphing into new forms. Charting new algorithms.

When you hear McNeill, who studied music theory and flute technique with Eric Dolphy, delivering his statement via flute on the iconic “Home Rule”, he’s got some girth, weight, and purpose behind it. Working within the determined groove extolled from Marshall Hawkins’ bass, Robert Gravatt’s drums and the electric piano magic by Eugene Rush. While the tone is somewhat celebratory it still casts off an air of perseverance through adversity.

“Washington Suite”, which is being re-issued by Soul Jazz Records, was originally commissioned as a piece of music for the Capital Ballet Company, in Washington, DC. The illusory veneer of “2504 Cliffbourne Pl.” and the magisterial 16 minute “City Triptych” displays McNeill’s compositional aptitude. Yet it’s the ever-present rhythmic indentation of “Just 71% Moor” and “Home Rule” that has kept this record on playlists from the downtempo/acid jazz moments of the early 1990’s to the present.

Very nice, tasteful playing by all involved. It isn't really much of a super virtuosic album, or at least they don't seem overly inclined to show it off too much, but with this sort of sound, I prefer that. A lot of it seems to be about the groove to me and I'm all for it because they lay out some pretty nice ones. If anything, maybe some of the tracks linger a little too long and as good as these grooves are, I sometimes wish there was just one step up they could've taken it before going back to the theme, but this is overall a very pleasant listen that'll put you in a good mood.