Two jazz greats join forces to celebrate one’s of the genre’s greatest musicians. Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves have announced the upcoming release of their joint album, Dedicated to You, scheduled for release via Blue Note Records on John Coltrane’s 100th Birthday on September 18.
The album is a stunning collection of new renditions to standards from Coltrane’s joint album with Johnny Hartman, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, released on Impulse Records in 1963.
When Marsalis was approached to record for Coltrane’s Centennial, he wanted to take a different approach or “the road less traveled.” which brought him to Coltrane and Hartman’s 1963 album. “At first I thought about male singers, but I decided to sleep on it,” Marsalis recalls, “and when I woke up the first thing I said was ‘Dianne Reeves.’ There is a magic sound within sound that we call ‘the thing,’ and Dianne’s got the thing. She’s heard a lot of people, which attracts me, and she adds so much emotion to whatever she does.”
Joining Marsalis and Reeves on this album is Marsalis’ quartet featuring pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner. “Listening to all the great singers coming up, I learned that they stood in the band, not in front of the band,” says Reeves while reflecting on the recording process. “They saw themselves as co-creators of the sound. The members of Branford’s quartet and I all speak the same language, and we all came up with ideas.”
The album is preceded by the first single, the Irving Berlin classic, “They Say It’s Wonderful.”
