Norman Connors - Love From The Sun

Love From the Sun is widely held up as Norman Connors' magnum opus, and it also happens to be one of the first places anyone heard Dee Dee Bridgewater sing. Connors spent four decades as a drummer, composer, arranger, producer, and bandleader, and he earned every one of those titles, but he was rarely more fully in command than here. Cut in 1973 for Buddah, the album gathers a band most leaders only dream about: Herbie Hancock on Fender Rhodes, Gary Bartz and Carlos Garnett on saxophones, Hubert Laws on flute, Buster Williams on bass, Eddie Henderson on trumpet, Bill Summers on percussion. Connors doesn't crowd them. He sets a groove, opens the door, and lets the room fill up. Bridgewater was barely known when she stepped up to the microphone for the title track, and she sings it like someone who already knows exactly what her voice can do, weightless over Hancock's Rhodes. Kumakucha (The Sun Has Risen) builds from percussion into something close to celebration, Drums Around the World is Connors reminding everyone which instrument he actually plays, and Holy Waters closes the album out on a hush. Careers were made on this record, and one of the great jazz voices of the century got its start. Spiritual jazz rarely arrives this generous.