Jun 9, 2012

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...


24 comments:

Anonymous said...

people (and comments) make the blogoworld go round...

http://www.mediafire.com/?9j9z84b29dou42e

boogieman said...

Hello Taro,

Great post, classic album. Good way to start the week end.
Cheers

Simon666 said...

Grabbed this in Japan some years back ... great album, great post!

taro nombei said...

@ boogieman
thanks. have a great weekend!

taro nombei said...

@ Simon666
cheers, hope you don't mind the namecheck!
Over the years, you put up some fantastic informative posts on your blog — and that was one of the best!! Thanks for keeping all the info up there!!

wackystuff said...

Nice one, thanks a bunch!

gilhodges said...

Very sweet! Great to see all the Bridgewaters in one place. Thank you so much!

Simon666 said...

Het TN, don't mind of course. Many dead links there, I've updated the "Afro Blue" link to here ...

Simon666 said...

Also loving the recent Erykah Badu / Robert Glasper take on the title track :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-0JZlrk4xA

taro nombei said...

That's a great album. Glasper is always worth hearing but this project is outstanding.
Some nice Rhodes on that track!

theblueamos said...

I just stumbeled on this one by chance.looks great thank you very much

Anonymous said...

What a voice. It's increadible that she's that young, she transpires experience... great post, thanks a lot!!

Funkmysoul said...

http://www.funkmysoul.gr/ link me if you please. I did. Thanks.

Calisan said...

Big names!! Thanks

El Tortuga said...

Ohh!! thank you so much for this! great!

Dan Leo said...

Molto grazie!

steve.d said...

A classic debut from Dee Dee,thank you brother.

apf said...

Thank you!

taro nombei said...

@ everyone
Thanks for letting me know :-)
much appreciated!

SantosCurser said...

Hi, I am wandering into this truly dedicated work of a music-blog site for the first time. I have been on music blogs only a few months, but I do know about the infamous mediafire implosion... and its affects on what i now see to have been invaluable music teaching and enjoyment sources...
and i am hoping with your dedication you might once again counter the forces of entropy with a re-up of this Dee Dee Bridgewater, whose musical work I have recently come to know and admire so much more...

Anonymous said...

@ santos curser
Your wish. My command.

https://www.mediafire.com/?tjakr0eghmdljbh

Happy new year.

Anonymous said...

awesome thanks

KKIIYYAANNII said...

MANY THANKS!!!

Andy said...

Thanks from me too! Happy to find the link still working. Sounds great!