Bio

Charles Lloyd was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938. He started playing saxophone at the age of 9, and had early influences from Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, and Coleman Hawkins. He got his musical start in his teenage years playing around Memphis with Booker Little, Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, and George Coleman. He attended music school at the University of Southern California, and soon launched his professional career. Charles Lloyd has played saxophone and flute with a mind boggling number of musicians over an even larger span of genres. He had a long stint of both playing and recording with the Beach Boys, and gravitated towards fusion in the 70’s. Since then he has signed for ECM and released numerous records. He has played with Cannonball Adderley, John Abercrombie, Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Reuben Rogers, Geri Allen, Les McCann, and Jack Dejohnette.