Lloyd could use a shot of Billy Higgins

Charles Lloyd’s music has passed through a shifting sequence of creative phases over his four-decade career. One of the most appealing is traced to his frequent partnership with the late drummer Billy Higgins, whose irrepressible rhythmic energy brought vim and vigor to Lloyd’s sometimes distracting tendency to focus on looking inward.

In “Lift Every Voice,” his only album since Higgins’ death in 2001, Lloyd’s ruminative qualities seemed an appropriate response to Sept. 11, with its thoughtful, low-key sense of spiritual comfort. But his performance at the Jazz Bakery on Friday, filled with a similarly pensive quality, suggested a need for the sort of galvanizing boost that Higgins provided.

The saxophonist was surrounded for the most part by players who made determined efforts to crank up the juice. Pianist Geri Allen (who also performed on the album) offered a series of crisply articulated solos, occasionally reminiscent of McCoy Tyner, more often reflecting her own growing skills as an improviser.

Bassist Robert Hurst kept Lloyd’s frequently morose tempos alive. And drummer Eric Harland offered the set’s most compelling moments in his climactic, final-number drum solo.

Except for his intriguing, set-opening solo on the Hungarian tarogato, a kind of wooden soprano saxophone, Lloyd’s playing tended to resonate with his earliest work of the ‘60s, when he successfully popularized superficial aspects of the John Coltrane style. Which was surprising, given the impressive quality of his work during his association with Higgins.

Lloyd has always played to the sound of his own piper -- as he should -- but it clearly seems to be time for a new phase and a new tune.