Hagar's Song

Hagar's Song

Hagars Song, the newest release from longtime ECM luminary Charles Lloyd, is an interactive duo recording with Jason Moran, the pianist who has been a key member of Lloyds latter-day quartet, contributing to the albums Rabo de Nube (2008), Mirror (2010) and Athens Concert (2012). Hagars Song, a collection of intimacy and homage, features pieces especially dear to Lloyd, ranging from compositions by Billy Strayhorn (Pretty Girl a/k/a Star-Crossed Lovers), Duke Ellington (Mood Indigo) and George Gershwin (Bess, You Is My Woman Now) to a standard strongly associated with Billie Holiday (You ve Changed), Brian Wilsons most famous Beach Boys ballad (God Only Knows) and a Bob Dylan song definitively interpreted by the Band (I Shall Be Released). The centerpiece of the album is the title suite composed by Lloyd and dedicated to his great-great-grandmother, who was taken from her home in south Mississippi at age 10 and sold to a slave-owner in Tennessee. <br>The release of Hagars Song comes in time to help mark Lloyds 75th birthday, on March 15, 2013. About the pieces that constitute Hagars Song, the saxophonist says: Music has always been my inspiration and consolation I hope to give the same. The songs we chose for the recording are part of the continuous thread of music that is my life.