When Lucinda Williams joined Charles Lloyd & The Marvels at UCLA's Royce Hall in April 2017, the musicians beamed with unbridled joy.

Same for the fans fortunate to witness, to share the depths of the artistry and exploration happening on stage. There were tears, too, as Williams reached inside herself for expressions of love, longing and loss in equal measures.

But the image that remains strongest from this remarkable night is of Lloyd, radiant and enchanted, at times not even playing, just taking in the wonders of this grouping that had come together around him.

That same energy and elation buzzed through the compact sessions in a Los Angeles studio that brought us the luminescent music heard on Vanished Gardens, the radiant new album featuring Lloyd and Williams with the singular set of talents that comprise The Marvels: Bill Frisell on guitar, Greg Leisz on pedal steel guitar, Reuben Rogers on bass and Eric Harland on drums — musicians who just as Lloyd and Williams have done have set their own courses, found their own ways of expression and exploration, while thriving most profoundly in sparks-filled collaborative settings.