Two months before Billy Higgins’ death in 2001, he paid a visit to Charles Lloyd’s home in Montecito, California. Lloyd’s partner Dorothy Darr set the tapes rolling and also videotaped proceedings. (The film footage has been assembled into a documentary, Home.) Which Way Is East offers listeners the chance to eavesdrop on these old friends as they the common language of music to say affectionate farewell, to reminisce, and to pray together. There are sax/drums duets here, and a wide variety of world musics; Higgins moves to guitar or to guimbri (the three-string instrument used in Gnawa music), sings in different languages, plays blues or bossa or Arabic music, blows on a whistle; occasionally Lloyd sits down at the piano for a dreamy interlude. Some of this would be called self-indulgent if it weren’t the work of a man about to meet his Maker: the guitar ditties on disc 2 are worth hearing once, but no more; the piano interludes are touching but too plentiful. But there’s also plenty of good music here among the slighter tracks. Both players know how to make convincing music from non-Western instruments, and the results are often bewitching: “The Forest” opens the album on an exceptional note, with burring vocals and a waterfall of percussion; “Beloved, Chimes at Midnight” is twilight song flecked with bright metallic glints; “Sally Sunflower Whitecloud” is another nocturne, the sleepy birdcries of Lloyd’s bass flute drifting across the speakers on their own before Higgins joins in on hand drums. The sax/drums improvisations are as good as one might expect. On most of them Lloyd plays alto, notably the two major setpieces “Hanuman’s Dance” and “Chomolungma” (on the latter he sounds like a beatific version of Jackie McLean, before switching to an Ornette bag halfway through). The tenor comes out only on the second disc, but it’s worth the wait: “ Windy Mountain,” for instance, is a superb uptempo blues with echoes of “Bessie’s Blues.”

There is too much music here: the two CDs are filled almost to capacity. I doubt I’ll return to about a third of the tracks here. The other two-thirds range from good to downright ravishing. Recommended . . . with reservations.

Nate Dorward

Cadence, August 2004