February 23, 2024
Charles Lloyd has shared “Booker’s Garden,” an enchanting homage to Booker Little, the late great trumpeter and fellow Memphis native who was a childhood friend of Lloyd’s. The piece—which features Lloyd on flute, Jason Moran on piano, Larry Grenadier on bass, and Brian Blade on drums—appears on his forthcoming musical offering The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, a majestic double album which will be released March 15 on the legendary saxophonist’s 86th birthday.
“Booker Little was one of those rare beings placed on Earth for a short time to help make some repairs. An avatar. His light shown clear and bright for a short 23 years,” says Lloyd. “We were best friends in high school, and when I arrived in NYC to join Chico Hamilton, he insisted I leave the Alvin Hotel and stay with him. We spent long hours into the night making music together and talking about life. The wisdom that Booker shared with me still resonates today, as I navigate the waters to the far shore.”
With The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow—Lloyd’s eleventh Blue Note album and his first new studio recording since the 2017 sessions that yielded his acclaimed releases Vanished Gardens and Tone Poem—he continues his monumental music making, an apex in American art, as a bandleader, a composer, a flutist, and a saxophonist. The album gives us first-time recordings of six new Lloyd compositions as well as reimaginations of works from his remarkable catalog. The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow is available for pre-order now on Blue Note Store exclusive color vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and digital download.
