Charles Lloyd

Charles Lloyd's saxophone is music I want to hear alone, late at night. Born in Memphis in 1938, he carries that city's deep musical lineage in his playing, moving fluidly between tenor sax, flute, and even the Hungarian tarogato. What I find remarkable is that an NEA Jazz Master of his stature never settled into comfortable legend status; instead he kept reinventing, fronting a quartet with younger players like Jason Moran. That restless, searching quality is rare in artists his age. To me he sounds like someone still chasing a melody just out of reach, and I love that he never stopped.

Name (English)

Charles Lloyd

Name (Japanese)

チャールズ・ロイド

Reading

ちゃーるず・ろいど

Born

March 15, 1938 (age 88)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Tiger

Origin

Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Occupation

composer / jazz saxophonist / jazz musician / recording artist / saxophonist

Awards & achievements

• NEA Jazz Masters

• Official sitehttps://www.charleslloyd.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%20Lloyd%20(jazz%20musician)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A4%E3%83%89
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q635132

Tags

• Tennessee
• composer
• jazz saxophonist
• jazz musician

Last updated

2026-06-23

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.