Album Notes

Toshiko Akiyoshi is a renowned, Japanese-American jazz pianist, composer/arranger, and bandleader. Among a very few successful female instrumentalists of her generation in jazz, she is also recognized as a major figure in jazz composition. She has received 14 Grammy nominations, and she was the first woman to win the Best Arranger and Composer awards in Down Beat magazine's Readers Poll.

Dedications II was recorded in Los Angeles in April 1977, and originally released in Japan and later in the U.S. This album features two lineups of the Toshiko Akiyoshi Trio. Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7 features Toshiko Akiyoshi on piano, Jimmie Smith on drums, and Bob Daugherty on bass. Tracks 2, 4, 6 features Akiyoshi on piano, Peter Donald on drums, and Andy Simpkins on bass.

This album includes distinctive renditions of such jazz classics as “In Your Own Sweet Way” (by Dave Brubeck), “Two Bass Hit” (by Dizzy Gillespie & John Lewis), and “Solar” (by Miles Davis).