After serving for years as
Duke Ellington's most stylized crooner while cutting records for a series of independent labels with small groups fortified by some of
Ellington's best musicians,
Al Hibbler achieved popular notoriety and measurable success between 1951 and 1961 by recording several albums' worth of material backed by brassy big bands, tightly arranged strings and decidedly overbearing mixed choirs. By far one of the best albums he ever made was
Early One Morning, recorded in Los Angeles on August 10, 1964 and subsequently released as LMI 10001. Backed by pianist
Sir Roland Hanna, bassist Bob West and drummer
Nick Ceroli,
Hibbler sounds very much at home in this intimate setting; his sensuous rendering of "I'm Just a Lucky So and So" qualifies as a masterpiece.
Hib also made a point of including two songs closely associated with
Fats Waller; "Believe It Beloved" and "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter." When the renegade Trip reissue label brought this album out in 1977 it came with a couple of what are now referred to as bonus tracks: "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" and "Dedicated to You." The excellent album contains some of
Hibbler's all-time best work; it may be savored in its own light or as a marvelous prologue to
Hib's March 30, 1972 collaboration with
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, issued on an Atlantic LP (SD1630)
A Meeting of the Times. That album was brought out on CD in 2004;
Hibbler's
Early One Morning is long overdue for reissue.