What the critics are saying:
>>Barrister Clive Thistlebaum ESQ on Charles Lloyd’s “Forest Flower” – Invades Google Series 🌸
Ah, yes. The lower-left quadrant—Ralph Rumpelton’s MS Paint reinterpretation—where pixelated pollen dares to bloom louder than Monterey’s own brass. What we have here, dear reader, is not merely a jazz album cover but a jurisprudential rupture in the visual canon. Charles Lloyd’s “Forest Flower,” long considered a sonic meadow of post-bop transcendence, now finds itself re-litigated in the court of digital mythos.
In this installment of the Invades Google Series, Mr. Rumpelton’s rendition mounts a full-scale aesthetic deposition. The saxophone, once a vessel of improvisational grace, is here rendered with the defiant geometry of MS Paint—each jagged edge a subpoena to the smoothness of legacy. The palette? A deliberate mistrial of taste. The composition? A cross-examination of nostalgia.
Let it be known: this is not parody. It is precedent. A visual writ served to the algorithmic gods who dare flatten jazz into metadata. Rumpelton’s lower-left glyph is not just a thumbnail—it is Exhibit A in the case for mythic reinterpretation.
“Forest Flower” has not been reimagined. It has been cross-examined. And the verdict? Sublime disorder.
—Barrister Clive Thistlebaum ESQ, Avachival Court of Aesthetic Appeals<<
>>Mack Tank Rodriguez's Take on Charles Lloyd's "Forest Flower"
[Tank squints at the album covers, adjusting his reading glasses]
Alright, so we got this Charles Lloyd fella and his "Forest Flower" thing. Four different covers, same music - reminds me of when my wife buys the same lamp in three different colors, can't make up her mind.
Now I don't know much about jazz - sounds like a bunch of guys just making it up as they go along, which honestly, I respect. That's basically how I approach drywall. But this Lloyd guy with his saxophone... I gotta say, the man's got something.
Rumpelton's MS Paint version there on the bottom left? Kid, that's art right there. Looks like Lloyd's having a good time, and sometimes that's all you need. The fancy photography on the other ones is nice and all, but yours has personality. Reminds me of those drawings my grandson makes - you can actually tell what it's supposed to be.
"Forest Flower" - I get it. Flowers in the forest. Makes sense. Music sounds like what you'd hear if trees could hum. Pretty relaxing stuff. Would definitely play this while I'm fixing the kitchen sink.
Bottom line: Lloyd knows what he's doing with that horn, and your cartoon version captures the vibe better than all that professional stuff. Sometimes simple works better.
Three out of four wrenches. Would recommend.<<
>>Hans U. Brickman on "Forest Flower" by Charles Lloyd
From the Central European Archive of Forgotten Styles
Ah, "Forest Flower." One might mistake this hauntingly sublime album for a relic unearthed from the dust-covered vaults of forgotten time—where jazz meets the spirit of nature with an otherworldly flourish. Charles Lloyd's masterpiece at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966, caught forever in sound, now emerges, reintroduced to the world not by the waves of mainstream acclaim, but by the careful curation of those of us who hold the torch for lost gems. This album—like a forgotten manuscript discovered in an abandoned corner of a library—has always had the warmth of the forest and the purity of the air within it. Lloyd’s saxophone, both ethereal and earthy, is the core of the record, capturing a sense of wandering amidst untamed beauty.
It is not only jazz we hear in "Forest Flower" but the moment of jazz transcending itself. For here, Lloyd's melodies grow, stretch, and intertwine in ways that feel as if they belong to an era beyond time—an era yet to arrive. Even the vibrancy of the accompanying art—the vivid hues, and the shapes of sound represented visually—are unmistakable signs of something both new and nostalgic. As if each note was captured and encapsulated not only in audio but in every brushstroke, every color rendered in your MS Paint entry on the lower left.
This album remains more than an artistic event. It is a rare, rediscovered flower—sprouting unexpectedly from the shadows of jazz’s intricate forest.<<
Follow Rumpelton across the multiverse:
Ralph Rumpelton “Painting What the Earth Can’t Comprehend” - Ralph Rumpelton User Profile DeviantArt - Ralph Rumpelton Substack - Instagram
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