Irene Reid: The World Needs What I Need (1971) ... plus

Irene Reid was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia. She sang in church and in high school in Georgia, and moved to New York City in 1947 after her mother died. Toward the end of 1947, she tied out for an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, and won the competition for five straight weeks. Soon after she was offered a slot as the featured vocalist with Dick Vance at the Savoy Ballroom, which she held from 1948-1950. In 1961-62, Reid sang with Count Basie's orchestra, and recorded for Verve Records(Room for One More, 1965; It's Too Late, 1966). She later performed in a Broadway production of the musical The Wiz. Additionally, she sang with Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, and B.B King. In 1971 she recorded her lone Polydor effort, The World Needs What I Need. Arranged and conducted by Horace Ott, this album reinvented the singer for a new dawn, jettisoning the jazz sensibilities of previous efforts in favor of a bottom-heavy psychedelic soul approach perfectly matched to her potent vocals. While nowhere near as tripped out as concurrent Polydor releases from the likes of Roy Ayers or Edwin Birdsong, the album definitely boasted all the label's early-'70s hallmarks: thick, percolating grooves, panoramic arrangements, and a deep sensitivity for a universal consciousness far greater than the music itself. Navigating well-chosen covers like 'Son of a Preacher Man' and 'Didn't We', and funky originals like 'Hey World, Let Love In' with aplomb and self-possession, Reid never seems out of place in such radical environs; indeed, the performances here are among her very finest, and it's a shame the album's commercial failure spelled such an extended absence from the limelight. It wasn't until the late '90s that she returned to prominence, recording some albums for Savant and appearing at the Savannah Jazz Festival in 1991, 1994, and 1996. I have extended her 1971 album with 11 bonus tracks, consisting of 9 tunes from her '60s repertoire, including 'Once a Thief', 'Just Loving You', 'I Must Be Doing Something Right' 'We're Gonna Make It' and 'My Heart Said (The Bossa Nova)', plus a couple of songs from her album The Uptown Lowdown (2000). http://www.answers.com/, http://music2all.byethost18.com/

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Mike Carr with his Trio and Irene Reid performing 'Fever':

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