Jazz giant Charles Lloyd talks about Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and sweeping DownBeat’s 2024 awards

Jazz saxophone legend Charles Lloyd is having a moment. Again. At age 87. And it’s remarkable.

Not only was he voted by DownBeat critics as artist of the year (for the second consecutive year) but also album of the year, top tenor saxophonist and named to DownBeat’s Hall of Fame. (He first won DownBeat’s artist of the year in 1967.)

“This was an unexpected honor — it was pointed out to me that the only other person to have received this quadruple honor was John Coltrane,” Lloyd said. “That put me in company with the highest. I am grateful for the acknowledgment.”

Lloyd, who has been a regular visitor to the Dakota in Minneapolis, will perform Sunday with his quartet at the Ordway. It’s one of about five or six different ensembles with which he regularly works, including the Marvels with Lucinda Williams and Bill Frisell.

Lloyd, a saxophonist and flutist, has a long history of collaboration, not only with jazz greats like Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett but with rock legends like the Grateful Dead and the Beach Boys, with whom he recorded and toured in the 1970s.

In an email interview, he talked about his career, the Dead as well as his old Memphis pal Elvis Presley and his old Greenwich Village neighbor Bob Dylan.

Q: Congratulations on all the DownBeat awards. Why do you think you’re getting your flowers again at this stage of your career?

A: There is a season for everything.

Q: What motivates you at this point of your life and career?

A: The creator must have a reason for keeping me here — I still have work to be done. The condition of the planet motivates me to continue to make my offering. In my youth I had the luxury of time. At this stage of my life, I feel the urgency of time.

Q: You work regularly in different ensembles — three trios as well as the Marvels, the Kindred Spirits, the Charles Lloyd New Quartet. How do you shift gears from one group to the next?

A: I swim underwater and hike in the mountains — it helps to keep the gears in readiness.

Q: Tell me about the group you’re bringing to the Ordway.

A: Larry Grenadier and I have been playing together since I recorded “The Water Is Wide” in 1999. He is one of the most gifted bassists on the planet at this time. The great Eric Harland is on drums; he has been with me for 22 years. I first heard Eric a few months after Billy Higgins died — it was in the aftermath of 9/11. I have always felt that Master Higgins sent Eric to me from the other side. … It is a deep connection. The newest member of this formation is pianist Aaron Parks. We have played together several times over the past 10 years and it is always a joy to make music together.

Q: On your album of the year, “The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow,” there seems to be a consistent vibe of tenderness. Why? What put you in that vibe?

A: When I recorded “The Water Is Wide” in 1999, I felt the world was in need of more tenderness. This feeling came back over me during the summer of 2020. … I invited Jason Moran, Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade to come to Santa Barbara and go into the studio with me. It was a challenge to find time when each of them had open dates. Eventually, schedules overlapped in March 2023, and we were all able to get together in my hometown to make the recording.

Q: You pay tribute to Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday and Booker Little on this record. Why was it important for you to nod to them?

A: Lady Day and Prez [Lester Young], Monk and Booker have been inspirations to me since I was a little boy in Memphis. They continue to inform me, even in this late stage as I move toward the other shore. It is important to remember where I came from.

Q: You’re associated with jazz but knowledgeable and conversant in many genres. Talk about your listening habits. Who are you listening to these days? How do you discover music and artists that are new to you?

A: When you love music you love a lot of it. I don’t have lines of demarcation. I listen to Bach, Beethoven, Bartók, Puccini, Monk, Ellington, Big Ben, qawwali singers. Along with my personal collection of recordings, people send me things to listen to from all over the world.

Q: You work with lots of different musicians. What was the appeal of Lucinda Williams in the Marvels? How did you discover her?

A: Many years ago a neighbor introduced me to [Williams’] “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” which resonated with me. Many years later, Bill Frisell introduced me to Lucinda — we were mutual fans of each other’s work which led to our collaboration together. She is a sensitive poet — I love how she can bring words together and create such visceral images and emotions.

Q: What was New York City like when you and Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix lived in Greenwich Village? How well did you know them?

A: It was a small village, an eclectic community of musicians, writers, painters and poets during those days. We lived near each other and shared our work and life. Bob wanted me to record on “John Wesley Harding,” but I didn’t think he needed me. I often visited him and the Band up in Woodstock — we were all friends. I didn’t record with Bob, but I invited Robbie Robertson to record with me on a couple tracks on “Of Course, Of Course.” Jimi and I were going to do something together, but time ran out.

Q: And Dylan advised you not to move to California?

A: He thought it was going to fall into the ocean — next thing I know, after I moved to Malibu, I looked out my window and the Band was on the beach in front of my house doing a photo shoot!

Q: You’ve always lived in places with bodies of water — your hometown of Memphis, Los Angeles, New York, Big Sur, Santa Barbara. Is that a need, an attraction, what?

A: I’m Pisces. I need to be near the water.

Q: What was it like working with the Beach Boys at a time when you stepped away from Atlantic Records and the business?

A: Mike Love and I were born on the same day, March 15, and became friends. During that time, Brian [Wilson] made his recording studio available to me and I was able to make a number of recordings there. The Beach Boys would come in and out and record with me, and I recorded on several of their records and toured with them. At that time I had pulled away from the jazz circuit and eventually moved to Big Sur in total retreat.

Q: What was the vibe at the Fillmore West like for a jazz musician with all those rock bands and rock fans?

A: Anything was possible at both the Fillmore East and West. Carlos Santana told me he was in the front row shouting: “Free the people, Charles, free the people.” Audiences were open to new sound experiences, and some of the rock groups were hearing improvised music for the first time — this opened them up, too, to other possibilities.

Q: How closely did you collaborate with the Grateful Dead?

A: We were on many of the same bills together and developed a friendship and simpatico.

Q: How did you know it was Elvis Presley who used to come to see you perform and Calvin Newborn perform back in Memphis?

A: Elvis was a delivery boy who loved to hang out and listen to the music. He knew Phineas and Calvin Newborn and often ate at their house — so, of course, we knew his name was Elvis Presley. He took some of Calvin’s moves and incorporated them into his own presentation.

When: 7:30 p.m. Sun.

Where: Ordway Concert Hall, 245 Washington St., St. Paul.

Tickets: $50-$89, ordway.org.