Charles Lloyd loves Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theatre so much he has performed there more often than anyone – 17 times! So what better place to celebrate his 80th birthday? For the evening’s festivities, he was joined by the latest iteration of the New Quartet: long-time collaborators Eric Harland on drums and Reuben Rogers on bass with Gerald Clayton on piano. An interesting addition to Lloyd’s preferred acoustic jazz ensemble, and a continuation of recent Lloyd outings at the Lobero, was fretboard wizard Julian Lage, whose electric guitar fit in perfectly with this slightly more contemplative and reflective dabble in Lloyd’s prodigious oeuvre with the New Quartet. After intermission, Booker T. Jones took the stage with Lloyd and band at the Hammond B-3 organ for a bit of music from the two elders’ hometown of Memphis. Mr. Jones switched to piano for a jazzy happy birthday song he’d written as a present just for this occasion.
