Charles Lloyd at the Umbria Summer Jazz Festival 2026

Charles Lloyd Quartet
Arena Santa Giuliana 
Umbria Jazz Festival
Perugia, Italy
July 6, 2026 

It was a night to remember in Perugia, Italy. During a brutal heat wave sweeping across southern Europe, the legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd performed at the Umbria Jazz Festival in the open-air Arena Santa Giuliana, at the top of this medieval walled city. The cool night air was filled with jazz lovers grateful for the 9pm performance start.

Nearly half a million people from all over Italy and the world had come together over the course of ten full days of jazz by both local and renowned artists. Perugia, 493 meters above sea level, sits equidistant between Florence to the north and Rome to the south. Performances were held in the huge open-air main stage in the Piazza IV Novembre, the Teatro Morlacchi, the Galleria Nazionale, and the Giardini Carducci along with smaller venues and clubs.

Now 88 years of age, Charles Lloyd, a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master, delivered a moving, spiritual set. Given his long career of composing, producing, and performing jazz music he bobbed and weaved with vigor as if still a young man.

Lloyd is arguably one of few jazz musicians to include Eastern musical sounds or what is considered world music before the term existed during the 1960s. His music is relaxing and meditative and yet reaches for the outer edges of a John Coltrane -like intensity, grounded by deep blues.

Blowing signature, visionary compositions through his instrument, Charles Lloyd led his group comprised of Gerald Clayton (piano), Harish Raghavan (double bass), and Kweku Sumbry (drums). As expected, his band members met his standard for creative excellence and imaginative summoning.

The concert setlist opened with the happy and upbeat "The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow," then the classic "Dream Weaver," the deeply introspective "Requiem," and the edgy staccato of "Monk's Dance." With Lloyd on flute, came his "Jaramillo Blues (for Virginia Jaramillo and Danny Johnson)," the mystical "Beyond Darkness" (on flute) and the dreamy "Peace Invocation" composed by Gerald Clayton.

"Beyond Darkness" reminded one that healing takes place in darkness and in light. It is beyond beautiful. It is worth viewing the YouTube video entitled "Live at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival July 11, 1983" where Lloyd played this piece with Michel Petrucciani (piano).

Lloyd's tenor saxophone seemed to never leave him; it was always in his hand except when switching to his flute. He swayed and dipped while changing tempo to emphasize fluctuations in notes or rhythm.

Upon exiting the stage at the end of a riveting performance, you could hear a pin drop, as he held his saxophone like it was his lifeline. Maybe that explains his endurance as an octogenarian, currently on a 19+ city world tour from June through November in cities across the US and Europe.

Perugia's audience experienced the result of a lifelong global journey in music. Starting at nine years old, winning an amateur show playing the sax, Lloyd was mentored by pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr. (about the blues). Then he left California and 'grew up' (as he puts it) musically through the grand tutelage of Charles Mingus, Chico Hamilton, Cannonball Adderley, Gabor Szabo, Ron Carter ... to name a few. The silence in the arena that night was testimonial by everyone hanging on every note of this master's performance.

As Jack Kenny wrote for All About Jazz in a review of Lloyd's 2025 album Figure in Blue, "[Lloyd's] work has passed beyond a national treasure; he is an international one."