My review of Charles Lloyd: Arrows Into Infinity, today at All About Jazz.

It's rare to have an opportunity to see a music film in both the theatre and the comfort of your own home, but a serendipitous invite to the 2013 Jazztopad Festival in Wrocław, Poland not only provided the chance to hear saxophonist Charles Lloyd premiering a new work, commissioned by the festival, with an entirely new group; it also presented, in a movie theatre, Charles Lloyd: Arrows Into Infinity, a nearly two-hour look at Lloyd's life and career, directed by his longtime life partner, manager and co-producer Dorothy Darr, along with Jeffery Morse. The screening was just one of a number of films presented by the festival but was the clear best of the bunch—which, given the run of films presented, is high praise—a labor of love for Darr and a window into the life of a musician for whom a search for the unattainable has been a constant touchstone.

It's especially significant that the film has been released, for home viewing—and in both Blu-Ray and DVD formats—by ECM Records, the label that gave Lloyd a new start in 1990 with the release of Fish Out of Water. In the ensuing quarter century, Lloyd has released sixteen albums—the most recent being Hagar's Song (2013), a duo recording with the pianist of his eight year-old quartet, Jason Moran—plus a box set, Quartets (2013), which collects his first five recordings for the label, all featuring Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson. With ECM releasing Arrows Into Infinity there's both a continuity and the assurance of a visually appealing package: there is also a 20-page booklet that, in addition to a full discography of Lloyd's recordings for the label, features notes by Darr and Morse, as well as a handful of color and black and white images.

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