James Sullivan for THE BOSTON GLOBE – During a recent visit with his friend George Wein in New York City, the jazz composer Charles Lloyd excused himself to go to the john. Inside the bathroom in Wein’s apartment, Lloyd was mesmerized by a huge print of Herman Leonard’s iconic photograph of the piano great Art Tatum.
“Something happened in there,” Lloyd told Wein when he returned.
His host didn’t look up. “Oh,” he replied. “You saw God.”
Lloyd, the tenor saxophonist who cut his first album as a bandleader in 1964, has been trying to see God through the music since he first picked up a horn more than 70 years ago. To mark his recent birthday, his 80th, he’ll be the guest of honor at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival, the weekend-long event that Wein helped launch in 1954.
At Wein’s suggestion, Lloyd will headline all three days, with sets from his New Quartet with pianist Jason Moran; Sangam, his Hindu-flavored project with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain; and an all-star finale featuring vocalist Lucinda Williams. Though Wein, at 92, is no longer the daily mastermind behind the festival he created — executive producer Jay Sweet is credited with resurrecting Newport from its doldrums of a decade ago, and bassist Christian McBride now serves as artistic director — he still gets his say.
“They all know who the master chef is,” Lloyd jokes.
Besides Lloyd, big names set for this year’s festival include Pat Metheny, George Clinton, Laurie Anderson, and Jon Batiste. As the festival strays some from the pure jazz of its heyday, Lloyd represents one of the few vital survivors of the post-bop and avant-garde jazz era.
“He’s being accepted as one of the last of the great ones,” says Wein. “He’s the last of an era.”