Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow (Blue Note/digital outlets)

Even those who just casually poke around Elsewhere will know the affection and high esteem in which we hold saxophonist/flautist Charles Lloyd.

One of his albums Lift Every Voice is in our Essential Elsewhere selection and frankly there are another couple we could slip in there without apology.

Now 86, Lloyd brings even more quiet sensitivity and emotional care to his material as he reflects on life, those who've influenced him (among others get nods here are Thelonious on Monk's Dance, Billie Holiday on The Ghost of Lady Day which captures her sadness and troubled spirit), the spiritual Balm in Gilead and his own catalogue (new treatments of The Water is Rising and Lift Every Voice and Sing)

There is a profound optimism, from the title track through Beyond Darkness and When the Sun Comes Up Darkness is Gone to Defiant Reprise; Homeward Dove.

Decades ago Lloyd – who stood alongside Coltrane, Rollins, Davis and Ornette among others – captured the attention of the hippie generation with his Forest Flower album but he also introduced pianists Keith Jarrett and Michel Petrucciani to his bands and audience, and after a couple of periods in retreat he returned to join the roster of ECM for a series of a dozen or so remarkable albums from the early Nineties.

On Blue Note for the last decade, he continues to stretch himself playing with Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Zakir Hussain among many others.

Here with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Brian Blade delivers a double vinyl album of depth, beauty and most often a spiritual calm.

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You can hear this album at Spotify here.