Wedded to the Tenor Sax

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the tenor saxophone and flute. His style, while harmonically sophisticated, encompassed a rich but plaintive sound that seems an extension of the human voice, bound to a seemingly simple melodic sensibility. His playing was exuberant but with hints of transcendence and melancholy that appealed to hardcore jazz lovers as well as more causal listeners. In 1966 he released Forest Flower, from a performance at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and it became one of the best-selling jazz LPs ever and made Lloyd a star. As a result, his quartet, which featured Keith Jarrett on piano, was able to open for some of the leading rock acts of the day and tour all over the world, at fees rarely available to jazz musicians. But the creator of such albums as The Flowering and The Journey Within was not one to be swayed by such success. For a decade, he withdrew from performance to pursue spiritual quests on the California coast.