(CEA Records)
The real-life story of Victoria Smith as told through music and narration has a distinctly PBS feel to it, revealing the high and low points of Victoria’s lifelong journey of self-sacrifice and service, both as a nurse and a Red Cross and Peace Corps volunteer. Through the subject’s autobiographical narration we become privy to not-long-dead taboos and idiosyncratic thinking unique to the black community – she was the darkest child of her family and hence the least-desirable – and watch as she parlays her personal tribulations into positive energy. Cecilia Smith (no relation indicated) is one of the world’s top vibes players, and her work on this record, along with help from an elite unit of musicians and composers that include the Harlem Boys Choir, is lovingly orchestrated, shifting with ultimate panache as both the dark and light times are related with warmth, humor and an adamant lack of regret.
