Biography
Lloyd McNeill stands out as a multifaceted creator whose talents span composition, flute performance, poetry, photography, pedagogy, and a distinguished career in the visual arts with international acclaim. Jazz players have long recognized him as a pioneering force on the flute. From 1969 through 1978 he issued a series of self-produced recordings on his own imprint—among them Asha in 1969, Washington Suite in 1970, Treasures in 1976, and Tori in 1978—that improvisers and reviewers alike have hailed as benchmarks for their fresh fusion of avant-garde and spiritual jazz idioms with folk, blues, free improvisation, and modernist classical methods. His final appearance as a leader arrived with the 1998 duet project X.Tem.Por.E alongside pianist Richard Kimball. As a painter and visual artist of considerable output and renown, McNeill has shown his work in venues stretching from Paris and New York to Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio. The U.K.’s Soul Jazz/Universal Sound imprint later remastered and reissued his initial five albums.
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1935, McNeill first encountered formal music instruction at Dunbar High School, after which he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a hospital corpsman. Following his discharge he enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he concentrated on art while also performing on conga drums—despite already having developed considerable skill on flute—and collaborated with the Lloyd Terry Band, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton. He received his degree from Morehouse in 1961; his graduating exhibition caught the eye of James A. Porter, chair of Howard University’s art department, who extended a full-tuition scholarship that made McNeill the institution’s inaugural MFA candidate. During his time at Howard he pursued studies ranging from fresco and line drawing to easel painting, and in 1963 he undertook advanced flute lessons with Eric Dolphy while serving as artist in residence at Dartmouth for a year.
In 1964 McNeill relocated to Paris alongside saxophonist Andrew White, a Howard classmate and close associate; there he performed on flute across diverse contexts and enrolled at L’École Nationale des Beaux Arts. During his residence he developed a lasting friendship with Pablo Picasso and Jacqueline that endured until their deaths. He also performed music, primarily in Cannes, alongside Guatemalan guitarist and singer-songwriter Julio Arenas Menas. Returning to the United States in 1965, he accepted a one-year artist-in-residence post at Spelman College. In 1969 he began teaching part-time at Howard while performing with local jazz ensembles, and that same year his Asha Records label released the Lloyd McNeill Quartet’s debut album Asha; a duo recording with bassist Marshall Hawkins, Tanner Suite, followed shortly thereafter.
McNeill joined the faculty at Rutgers University in 1970, an affiliation that lasted more than three decades, and settled in New York City. Beyond art instruction he taught Afro-American history and played a key role in shaping the university’s jazz curriculum. He pursued further flute studies with Harold Jones and issued his second quartet album, Washington Suite, which featured White as a guest. Although he contributed to recordings by Brazilian percussionists Thiago de Mello and Dom Um Romao, McNeill did not lead another session until 1976. In the intervening years a State Department grant enabled travel to West Africa, where he visited Senegal, Benin (then Dahomey), the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria; there he met Fela Kuti, stayed at his Lagos home, performed at his club, delivered lectures, painted, sketched, and mounted exhibitions.
That year McNeill launched the Baobab Sounds label with Treasures, featuring a sextet that included Cecil McBee, Ray Armando, Dom Salvador, Brian Brake, and Porthino. Organist Charles Earland invited him to appear on the 1976 release The Great Pyramid, and Brazilian saxophonist Paulo Moura featured him on Confusão Urbana, Suburbana E Rural. Teaching commitments and involvement in African-American artistic circles delayed his next leader date until 1978, when Baobab issued Tori. Guitarist John La Barbera, bassist Buster Williams, tubist Howard Johnson, drummer Victor Lewis, and percussionists Dom Um Romao and Nana Vasconcelos joined Armando on that date. Elegia, released in 1980 on the same imprint and produced and conducted by Andrew White, proved to be McNeill’s final recording for eighteen years; its personnel comprised McBee, Porthino, Vasconcelos, Dom Salvador, guitarist Claudio Celso, and vocalist Susan Osborn.
Between 1980 and 1998 McNeill devoted himself to teaching, painting, writing, publishing poetry and essays, and international exhibitions. His return to the studio yielded the 1998 duet album Ex.Tem.Por.E with pianist Richard Kimball on New Milford Records. He retired from Rutgers in 2003 yet retained emeritus status. In 2007 the United States Postal Service commissioned him to design a Kwanzaa commemorative stamp that entered circulation in 2009. Universal Sound began reissuing his catalog with a remastered Asha in 2010, followed by Washington Suite in 2011, Tanner Suite in 2015, Elegia and Treasures in 2019, and Tori in 2021.
Born in Washington, D.C., in 1935, McNeill first encountered formal music instruction at Dunbar High School, after which he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a hospital corpsman. Following his discharge he enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he concentrated on art while also performing on conga drums—despite already having developed considerable skill on flute—and collaborated with the Lloyd Terry Band, Nina Simone, and Lionel Hampton. He received his degree from Morehouse in 1961; his graduating exhibition caught the eye of James A. Porter, chair of Howard University’s art department, who extended a full-tuition scholarship that made McNeill the institution’s inaugural MFA candidate. During his time at Howard he pursued studies ranging from fresco and line drawing to easel painting, and in 1963 he undertook advanced flute lessons with Eric Dolphy while serving as artist in residence at Dartmouth for a year.
In 1964 McNeill relocated to Paris alongside saxophonist Andrew White, a Howard classmate and close associate; there he performed on flute across diverse contexts and enrolled at L’École Nationale des Beaux Arts. During his residence he developed a lasting friendship with Pablo Picasso and Jacqueline that endured until their deaths. He also performed music, primarily in Cannes, alongside Guatemalan guitarist and singer-songwriter Julio Arenas Menas. Returning to the United States in 1965, he accepted a one-year artist-in-residence post at Spelman College. In 1969 he began teaching part-time at Howard while performing with local jazz ensembles, and that same year his Asha Records label released the Lloyd McNeill Quartet’s debut album Asha; a duo recording with bassist Marshall Hawkins, Tanner Suite, followed shortly thereafter.
McNeill joined the faculty at Rutgers University in 1970, an affiliation that lasted more than three decades, and settled in New York City. Beyond art instruction he taught Afro-American history and played a key role in shaping the university’s jazz curriculum. He pursued further flute studies with Harold Jones and issued his second quartet album, Washington Suite, which featured White as a guest. Although he contributed to recordings by Brazilian percussionists Thiago de Mello and Dom Um Romao, McNeill did not lead another session until 1976. In the intervening years a State Department grant enabled travel to West Africa, where he visited Senegal, Benin (then Dahomey), the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria; there he met Fela Kuti, stayed at his Lagos home, performed at his club, delivered lectures, painted, sketched, and mounted exhibitions.
That year McNeill launched the Baobab Sounds label with Treasures, featuring a sextet that included Cecil McBee, Ray Armando, Dom Salvador, Brian Brake, and Porthino. Organist Charles Earland invited him to appear on the 1976 release The Great Pyramid, and Brazilian saxophonist Paulo Moura featured him on Confusão Urbana, Suburbana E Rural. Teaching commitments and involvement in African-American artistic circles delayed his next leader date until 1978, when Baobab issued Tori. Guitarist John La Barbera, bassist Buster Williams, tubist Howard Johnson, drummer Victor Lewis, and percussionists Dom Um Romao and Nana Vasconcelos joined Armando on that date. Elegia, released in 1980 on the same imprint and produced and conducted by Andrew White, proved to be McNeill’s final recording for eighteen years; its personnel comprised McBee, Porthino, Vasconcelos, Dom Salvador, guitarist Claudio Celso, and vocalist Susan Osborn.
Between 1980 and 1998 McNeill devoted himself to teaching, painting, writing, publishing poetry and essays, and international exhibitions. His return to the studio yielded the 1998 duet album Ex.Tem.Por.E with pianist Richard Kimball on New Milford Records. He retired from Rutgers in 2003 yet retained emeritus status. In 2007 the United States Postal Service commissioned him to design a Kwanzaa commemorative stamp that entered circulation in 2009. Universal Sound began reissuing his catalog with a remastered Asha in 2010, followed by Washington Suite in 2011, Tanner Suite in 2015, Elegia and Treasures in 2019, and Tori in 2021.
Albums
