Well, summer is well and truly here in the UK! Blazing sunshine and 30-odd degree heat is making London feel like the Mediterranean at the moment, and we are loving it here at W&S. Hopefully you’re getting some of the summer vibe too wherever you are in the world.
This month we have two summery female-led releases for you. It seems like we’re getting more and more months with just albums for you as time goes on, and this is another of those:
Our first album is the second from UK singer songwriter Jorja Smith. We've had our eyes on her for a good while, and were lucky enough to get our hands on her recent album “Falling or Flying” for you. If you haven’t heard of Jorja yet, (where have you been if you haven’t?) you are in for a treat. Since her debut album in 2018, Jorja has cemented herself as one of the UK’s most talented vocalists, spanning soul, jazz, R&B and more genres. Check out her collab with Nia Archives on a remix of this album’s “Little Things” for some drum and bass. We love this album for summer and hope you do too!
The second album (or joint first?) takes us back in time to 1962. This is a relatively unknown gem of a record by female saxophonist Vi Redd. With an incredible supporting cast including Roy Ayers, Russ Freeman, and Leroy Vinnegar, Redd put together an excellent jazz album that should have had wider recognition. This was a time when it was thought that female musicians could not be as commercially successful as men, & so she only ever put out our album, “Bird Call,“ and one other, & the originals are very hard to find. We love a cover version, so the standout track on here is Redd’s take on the classic “Summertime.”
