“From what I could see, I was the only authentic jazz singer in the show,” Phyllis Hyman told Jet in 1981, discussing Sophisticated Ladies, a Broadway tribute to Duke Ellington. It was not the most obvious statement to be made by a singer who never recorded “pure” jazz projects. Hyman’s breakthrough had come with her vocals on Norman Connors’ 1976 cover of “Betcha by Golly, Wow,” and she contributed the following year to the album the drummer produced for his former employer, Pharoah Sanders. Hyman also sang on a 1982 project by McCoy Tyner, but the crossover orientation of those efforts was manifest and commercial success was what Hyman strived for when crafting her own albums. It was what she applied herself to in the studio, but the depth of her background was always apparent. In Strength of a Woman: The Phyllis Hyman Story, biographer Jason A. Michael writes that one of the numbers making up Hyman’s repertoire in early 1970s Miami clubs, before her New York breakthrough, was Sanders’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” “I never heard anyone sing with such freedom,” bandmate Hiram Bullock says in an Unsung episode devoted to Hyman. “We would end up playing some, you know, Miles Davis, Bitches Brew jams, and Phyllis would do the parts of Miles’ horn, those weird horn parts.… She would have no fear in that way.” She did not make records in that vein but that freedom remained, in the agility with which she handled her material and in the smoothness with which she moved across genres. The following selections, taken from her first years in the recording industry, hopefully make a good case for Phyllis Hyman, authentic jazz singer.
Tracklisting (listen below):
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
01. I Don’t Want to Lose You(from the album Phyllis Hyman, 1977)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
02. Love Is Here(from the album Love Will Find Away by Pharoah Sanders, 1978)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
03. Can’t We Fall in Love Again?(from the album Can’t We Fall In Love Again by Phyllis Hyman, 1981)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
04. No One Can Love You More (from the album Phyllis Hyman, 1977)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
05. Baby (I’m Gonna Love You)(from the album Phyllis Hyman, 1977)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
06. Under Your Spell(from the album You Know How To Love Me by Phyllis Hyman, 1979)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
07. In Search of My Heart(from the album Looking Out by McCoy Tyner, 1982)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
08. In a Sentimental Mood (from the album Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated, 1981)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
09. Just Another Face in the Crowd (from the album Can’t We Fall In Love Again by Phyllis Hyman, 1981)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
10. In Between the Heartaches (from the album Can’t We Fall In Love Again by Phyllis Hyman, 1981)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
11. Mood Indigo(from the album One on One by Phyllis Hyman, 1998)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
12. Betcha by Golly, Wow (from the album You Are My Starship by Norman Connors, 1976)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
13. The Love Too Good to Last (from the album Can’t We Fall In Love Again by Phyllis Hyman, 1981)
Compact Audio Player Error! The mp3 file URL that you entered in the "fileurl" parameter looks to be invalid. Please enter a valid URL of the audio file.
14. Loving You, Losing You (from the album Phyllis Hyman, 1977)
