Sounding Off. - Review - sound recording reviews

Ebony, March, 1999 by Lynn Norment

The Best In Recorded Music

THE beautiful voice of Phyllis Hyman is showcased on Forever With You (Philadelphia Intl.) This collection of 12 songs, produced by musicmakers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, is among the last recorded by the silkyvoiced singer, who died in 1995. Featured are four that Hyman cowrote: "Strength of a Woman," "Come Right or Not at All," "How Long" and "Tell Me What You're Gonna Do." In addition, there are songs penned by Gamble and Huff ("No One But You"), Walter Sigler ("Forever With You") and Dexter Wansel ("Hurry Up This Way Again"). On each, Hyman's voice is in fine form as she serenades her audience with a voice that will forever be revered.

Bishop T. D. Jakes' emphatic, poetic message of woman's love for her man and her God is set to music on Sacred Love Songs (Island), the musical counterpart to his best-selling book, The Lady, Her Lover and Her Lord. With his Barry White-like voice, he opens with a spoken passage followed by Shirley Murdock's soulful delivery of "The Lady, Her Lover and Her Lord." Terri Small is featured on the beautiful, poignant "From Mother to Daughter," while Arnetta Murrill-Crooms sings lead on "Usher Me." In addition to delivering good music, this recording (produced by Donald Lawrence) is a great inspiration for men and women who want to revive, reconcile or gain revelation in their relationships.

Blue Note Records celebrates its 60th anniversary with the release of a mega CD set that heralds the outstanding artists who have recorded on the label over the past six decades. There are 149 tracks on 14 CDs, arranged chronologically. The volumes are titled: Boogie, Blues & Bop (1939-55), which includes "Boogie Woogie Stomp," (Albert Ammons, 1939), as well as Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis and Art Blakey; The Jazz Message (1955-60), with the Jazz Messengers, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Stanley Turrentine and Dexter Gordon; Organ & Soul (1956-67), with Jimmy Smith, Donald Byrd, Wayne Shorter and Lou Donaldson; Hard Bop & Beyond (1963-67), with Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard; The Avant Garde (1963-67), with Jackie McLean, Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry; and The New Era (1975-98), with Earl Klugh, Ronnie Laws, Bobby McFerrin, Stanley Jordan, Rachelle Ferrell and Cassandra Wilson. The seventh volume, Blue Note Now As Then, features contemporary artists associated with the label during the '90s.

ALSO NOTED: Malaco Records 30th Anniversary 6-CD Box Set, with Little Milton, Anita Ward, Bobby Blue Bland; WOW Gospel 1999, with Fred Hammond, CeCe Winans, Shirley Caesar, Oleta Adams; Shanice Wilson, Shanice (LaFace); Busta Rhymes, Extinction Level Event (Elektra); DJ. Clue (Del Jam); Cree Summer debut (Work Group); Reggae Roots (Island); Stefon Harris, Cloud of Red Dust (Blue Note); JoMarie Payton, Southern Shadows (Chartmaker Jazz); Coltrane's Sound (Rhino); and JeffMajors, Sacred (Universal).