Lloyd McNeill is a composer, flutist, poet, photographer, teacher, and globally celebrated visual artist. He is regarded by jazz musicians as an innovator in his chosen instrument. Between 1969 and 1978, he self-released several albums --including 1969's Asha, 1970's Washington Suite, 1976's Treasures, and 1978's Tori -- that are considered classics by improvising musicians as well as critics for their innovative meld of vanguard and spiritual jazz, folk, blues, free improv, and modernist classical technique. They are considered classics by musicians and many critics for their innovative meld of vanguard and spiritual jazz, folk, blues, free improv, and modernist classical technique. McNeill's last recorded outing was 1998's X.Tem.Por.E, in collaboration with pianist Richard Kimball. McNeill is also a prolific, internationally renowned painter and visual artist; his work has been exhibited from Paris and New York to Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio. His first five recordings have been remastered and reissued by the U.K.'s Soul Jazz/Universal Sound label. McNeill was born in Washington, D.C., in 1935. He studied music at Dunbar High School before joining the U.S Navy, where he served as a hospital corpsman. Upon discharge, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and majored in art. He also played music there -- conga drum, notably, though he was already a proficient flutist. He worked with the Lloyd Terry Band, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton. McNeill graduated from Morehouse in 1961, and his senior exhibit drew the attention of James A. Porter, chairman of the art department at Howard University. Porter offered him a full-tuition scholarship, and McNeill became the school's first MFA student. While at Howard, he studied everything from fresco painting and line drawing to easel painting. In addition to visual art, he undertook advanced flute studies with Eric Dolphy in 1963 during a year at Dartmouth as an artist in residence.
McNeill moved to Paris in 1964 with saxophonist Andrew White, a Howard classmate, and close friend. He played flute in a variety of settings and studied at Paris' L'École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. While living there, he met and became close with Pablo Picasso and his wife Jacqueline until their respective deaths. He also found time to play music, though mostly in Cannes, collaborating with Guatemalan guitarist and singer/songwriter Julio Arenas Menas.
McNeill returned to the U.S. in 1965, when he accepted the position of the artist in residence at Spelman College from 1965 to 1966. He taught part-time at Howard in 1969 and began playing with jazz groups around town. That year, Asha, billed to the Lloyd McNeill Quartet, appeared from his own Asha Records label. It was followed by the duo offering Tanner Suite with bassist Marshall Hawkins.
In 1970, McNeill began a three-plus-decade teaching association with Rutgers University and moved to New York City. He not only taught art but also Afro-American history, and was instrumental in the development of the school's jazz studies program. McNeill did advanced flute studies with Harold Jones and issued his second quartet offering, Washington Suite, the same year. It featured White as an added guest. Though he played on albums by Brazilians Thiago de Mello and Dom Um Romao, McNeill didn't record again as a leader until 1976. In the interim, he traveled to West Africa on a State Department grant and visited and studied in Senegal, Benin (then Dahomey), the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria, where he met Fela Kuti, stayed at his home, and played at his club in Lagos. While in Africa, McNeill gave lectures, painted, drew, and exhibited his art.
In 1976, he formed the Baobab Sounds label to release Treasures. His sextet included McBee, Ray Armando, Dom Salvador, Brian Brake, and Porthino. He was also recruited by organist Charles Earland to play on his 1976 album The Great Pyramid and Brazilian saxophonist Paulo Moura's Confusão Urbana, Suburbana E Rural. Busy teaching and working in the African-American art and music communities, McNeill didn't record again until 1978, when he released Tori on Baobab. While Armando was once again part of the group, the rest of the band included guitarist John La Barbera, bassist Buster Williams, tubist Howard Johnson, drummer Victor Lewis, and percussionists Romao and Nana Vasconcelos. 1980s Elegia was the final recording from Baobab and McNeill's last release for another 18 years. Its lineup included McBee, Porthino, Vasconcelos, Dom Salvador, guitarist Claudio Celso, and vocalist Susan Osborn. The set was conducted and produced by Andrew White.
From 1980 to 1998, McNeill taught, painted, wrote, published poetry and essays, and exhibited internationally. When he returned to recording, he cut the duet album Ex.Tem.Por. E with pianist Richard Kimball on New Milford Records. McNeill retired from Rutgers in 2003 but remained professor emeritus. In 2007, he was chosen by the United States Postal Service to design a postage stamp for the celebration of Kwanza. It was circulated in 2009. In 2010, Universal Sound re-mastered and reissued Asha, and followed it in 2011 with a new version of Washington Suite. A remastered Tanner Suite appeared on the label in 2015. It was followed by new editions of Elegia and Treasures in 2019, and Tori in 2021. AMG.
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