Five Play
What The World Needs Now
Arbors Records
By George W. Harris

Hopefully you've heard of the all female Diva Jazz Orchestra, who has a
few excellent discs available. This quintet features some of the ladies
in a smaller (and therefore looser) format, including leader Sherrie
Maricle (dr), Jamie Dauber (horn), Janelle Reichman (reeds), Tomoko
Ohno (p) and Noriko Ueda (b). The band has a heart for swinging, and
has a great time in the process. The band can work as an entire unit,
trading fours with Maricle on "I Want To Be Happy" or creating a full
bodied frame for soloists as on the lovely ballad "What The World Needs
Now." Reichman is nasty on the clarinet, particularly on "Slipped
Disc", while Ueda's bass solo on "Old Folks" is lovingly lyrical. Their
closing with Helen Reddy's anthem "I Am Woman" is undoubtedly the
first time on a jazz chart, and it fittingly closes an enjoyable disc.
Suffragette jazz at its best.