Walt Dickerson
To My Queen

★★★★

Someone kill me. All I can listen to is jazz and the urge won't go away. What a lovely album this is too, a pure dedication to the woman Dickerson loves; and the love is palpable. I haven't listened to Dickerson before and to be honest I am not really a fan of vibraphone. But man when I listened to this, that changed. He is pretty unique in the small pool of vibraphone players I've listened to, the only one I really was ok with was Bobby Hutcherson but even he could be a bit much. 

It's pretty cool that he brings in a young but impressive group, and acting as a leader like  a horn player would be, he helps create a quartet that is completely unique in my listening experience. Andrew Cyrille on drums, he's very much restrained compared to his later releases which see him as an avant jazz hero. Andrew Hill is as graceful as always, perhaps a bit more jagged on the sides, and that makes sense as he was nearing completion towards creating his signature sound. Bassist George Tucker does a fantastic job for the most part too, he really responds to everything Dickerson puts out there. 

I think the only stale and uninteresting part of this album is the standard "God Bless the Child", which features Tucker on his bowed bass, but he seems a bit off in comparison to Dickerson. The most important piece on here is the self titled "To My Queen", it's seventeen and a half minutes of pure cool. And every now and then Cyrille does these little fast breaks that make you think it's all about to explode, until Hill breaks it down with the simplicity of only a few keys. It's lush, meaningful, and light. A love letter of the highest order. 

"How Deep Is the Ocean" is a bit catchier and a great long rendition of the standard. It is less emotionally heavy, and due to this fact it is bouncier and a bit faster compared to the first song. Dickerson does a great job as a leader on this entire album, he really helps set the mood unlike anyone else. And reminds me of how music can be used to express feelings that aren't able to be put into words.

Favorite Song: To My Queen 

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