A superlative saxophonist and a sophisticated composer, Lloyd traversed and was a main protagonist of the vast and rich musical patrimony of the second half of the popular music of the twentieth-century, having played with almost every jazz, blues and rock luminaries, from B. B. King and Howlin’ Wolf to Cannonball Adderley, Don Cherry, Tony Williams and Keith Jarrett, as well as the Beach Boys and The Doors. the saxophonist’s career, from the very beginning highly focused on its authorial dimension, was marked by prolonged moments of voluntary obscurity and, necessarily, by creative reincarnations which prove Lloyd’s unconditional dedication to his art and his profound sensibility to the signs and transformation phenomena of the times. After an effervescent sixties, a decade of frantic collaborative activity during which Lloyd founded, with the by then young and promising musicians Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee and Jack DeJohnette, the saxophonist decides to disappear from scene and it is only after fifteen years that, after a traumatizing near-death-experience, that he decides to dedicate himself to music again. Since then, Lloyd has recorded with significant regularity on ECM with different formations, alongside with great musicians such as Billy Higgins, Brad Mehldau, Geri Allen, Jason Moran, among many others.

At the festival’s opening concert, Charles Lloyd, who returns to Guimarães Jazz after a memorable performance in 2010, will play with his quintet. Kindred Spirits is the name of this project, an all-star band featuring pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Eric Harland, Chicago-based blues and jazz guitarist Marvin Sewell and bassist Harish Raghavan. The public of the festival will again have the opportunity to witness the performance of a musical expeditionary of more than eighty years old who continues to reinvent himself and whose music seems to always obey to an invisible force, conveying an emotion existing only in the legacy of a world which is already a glorious ruin of the future.