Late to the Sweet, Sweet Spirit party
My new thing is to listen to one new album, read one new book and watch one new movie every week.
This week's album is Sweet, Sweet Spirit (2026) by Ron Carter & Ricky Dillard
This is a 2026 album, so not too late to the party in that sense, and my parents are both musicians who play (and teach) various kinds of jazz and big band so I've almost certainly heard jazz legend Ron Carter's playing without knowing it.
There wouldn't have been any gospel playing (not counting the church scene from The Blues Brothers movie), so this was the first time I heard gospel legend Ricky Dillard.
This was a great introduction to gospel music. It's an album of Carter's mother's favourite songs and it's intended audience is probably familiar with all of them. I imagine that added a bit of pressure to make this good, but Carter and Dillard are both amazing so maybe it was always going that way. Because it was great. Even with no knowledge of gospel, this was a great album.