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...

Kanai, Hideto Group - "Q"

barabara sounds sez:

More goodies from the tbm vaults, this time from pioneering jazz bass great Hideto Kanai. Laid down in 1971, his ensemble features some of the future lunimaries of j-jazz. Mine is there, so is Takayanagi and Motohiko Hino (here sharing drums duties with Hiroshi Yamazaki) among others. Even the CD reissue is well OOP, but it's the music not the rarity that makes this special. Free but not without structure, this is classic tbm, classic 70s j-jazz. A barabara classic in fact. 

east wind says:

The sixth album released by Three Blind Mice turned the spotlight on Hideto Kanai a veteran bassist who had been pursuing a very progressive, unique and uncompromising kind of jazz since the early 1960s. With his passion for educating young musicians and adventurous nature, Kanai has drawn some comparisons to another great leader, Charles Mingus, whom he respected.

The four performances in this album are all free-oriented and may be challenging for some listeners, but they riveting, fascinating, and ultimately satisfying. The opening and closing numbers were actually quite "composed." In an interesting collaboration with contemporary composers (from the world of classical music), Shuko Mizuno wrote "April" and Hiroshi Nanatsuya wrote "Meditation" specially for this group.

personnel:

Hideto Kanai bass; Kosuke Mine alto sax; Allan Praskin alto sax; Tadayuki Harada baritone sax; Masamichi Suzuki trumpet; Hiroshi Koizumi flute; Choyo Kanda xylophone; Masayuki Takayanagi guitar; Mototeru Hino drums; Hiroshi Yamazaki drums

tracks:

1. April Songs for Kanai, Zui-zui-zui-du-tubadaba; 2. Q; 3. Kaleidoscope; 4. Meditation

There's a short bio of Kanai here... 

Kohsuke Mine - Out Of Chaos

barabara sounds sez:

Fine flowing modal music from Mine and his crew (a crack team of the usual j-jazz suspects) from back in '74. This was one of Mine's first outings after switching from alto to tenor and definitely one of his best ever. Also one of the first albums on the very righteous East Wind label. The stately lyrical second track (by Kikuchi) is a standout here, sandwiched between the two high-power numbers penned by Mine.

The concept for the cover art is questionable (red gloop as a representation of chaos? Or maybe the art director used this image because s/he was clean out of chaos?). But when it comes to the music, there's nothing lacking here whatsoever! [ripped from the CD reissue]

personnel:

Mine Kohsuke tenor sax; Kikuchi Masabumi piano; Okada Tsutomu bass; Hino Motohiko drums

tracks:

Recollection; Little Abi; Cross Wind