Jazz Supreme - Spiritual Waltz-A-Nova

barabara sounds sez:  

More supremely jazzy sounds from this great series. This was actually the very first of the excellent Jazz Supreme comps, and it sets the tone perfectly. A brilliant blend of classic and club, drawing from the back catalogs of Strata-East, Black Jazz, Tribe and interspersing them with righteous sounds from more recent times. 

Among my favorites: Abdul Rahim Ibrahim (the former Doug Carn); Dee Dee Bridgewater; and Charles Greenlee (with Archie Shepp of course). And I'm sure I'm not the only person to discover the Pete Jolly Trio through this album. 

trax:
01. John Hicks – After the morning 
02. The Ted Vining Trio – Impressions
03. Dee Dee Bridgewater – Little B's poem
04. S.O.L.A.R. – Faith for my mind
05. Hipnosis – Black Forest stomp
06. Two Banks Of Four – One day
07. The Pete Jolly Trio – My favorite things
08. Abdul Rahim Ibrahim – Tropic sons
09. Haki R. Madhubuti And Nation – Children
10. Pharoah Sanders – Moments notice
11. Kindred Spirits Ensemble – Naima
12. Charles Greenlee – Steam
13. The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe – Coltrane
14. Doug Hammond – Moves
15. Joe Bonner – Soft breezes

Dee Dee Bridgewater – Afro Blue

barabara sounds sez:
Dee Dee's first, she was just 23 and she sounds as beautiful as she looks. What a debut. And what a great band she had behind her too, led by the Bridgewater brothers and with Sir Roland too. But this show is all about Dee Dee, especially her take on the title track. Far too good to be OOP. Dusty doesn't disapprove...


dusty sez:
One of the greatest jazz vocal albums of all time – and one of the first true moments of genius from a young Dee Dee Bridgewater! The album's a Japanese only release (proof that they're always hipper to our jazz artists than we are!) – and it features Dee Dee singing material that's quite different than her later R&B-inflected sides from the late 70s – very soaring and spiritual work, delivered in a way that set a whole new standard for jazz at the time! Backing is by a small combo with brothers Ron and Cecil Bridgwater, plus Roland Hanna on acoustic and electric piano, George Mraz on bass, and Motohiko Hino on drums and percussion – but the star of the set is always Dee Dee, who sparkles beautifully on the album's classic versions of "Afro Blue" and "Little B's Poem" – both of which have been redone by many other singers over the years. Other great cuts include "People Make The World Go Round", "Love From The Sun", and "Love Vibrations".


stuff:
This album first came out on Trio, a brilliant Japanese label that delivered some great music, mostly jazz (Ornette, Mal, Gil Evans, Stanley Cowell and lots more) but also put out some unlikely stuff (T.Rex and the Dead Kennedys!). This rip is from the CD reissue on AMJ. The back cover posted below is from the album, from here.


For a great write-up giving some background to what Dee-Dee and Cecil and the crew recorded around the same time, check out Simon's post of the classic Strata-East joint, Billy Parker's Fourth World over at Never Enough Rhodes...