Norman Connors - L'amour venu du soleil

Love From the Sun is widely considered Norman Connors' masterpiece, and it was also one of the first times Dee Dee Bridgewater was heard singing.

Connors has spent forty years as a drummer, composer, arranger, producer and bandleader, and he has earned every one of those titles, but he has rarely been more in full possession of his powers than here. Recorded in 1973 for Buddah, the album brings together a group that most frontmen only dream of: 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 stifle them. He sets up a groove, opens the door and lets the room fill up.

Bridgewater was barely known when she took the mic for the title track, and she sings it like someone who already knows exactly what her voice can do, light on Hancock's Rhodes. Kumakucha (The Sun Has Risen) moves from percussion to a celebration of sorts, Drums Around the World is Connors reminding everyone what instrument he actually plays, and Holy Waters closes the album on a whisper.

Careers were made on this album, and one of the great jazz voices of the century made his debut. Spiritual jazz is rarely so generous.