Afro Blue (Brown Jr)

'Afro Blue' is a 1959 instrumental jazz standard, perhaps best known in its arrangement by John Coltrane. It was first recorded live on April 20, 1959, at the Sunset Auditorium in Carmel, California by Cal Tjader's band with composer Mongo Santamaría on percussion, for release on Fantasy.

Lyrics were added the next year by Oscar BROWN Jr:

Dream of a land my soul is from, I hear a hand stroke on a drum
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue

Elegant boy, beautiful girl, dancing for joy, delicate whirl
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue

Two young lovers, face to face with undulating grace
They gently sway then slip away to some secluded place
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue

Whispering trees, echo their sighs
Passionate pleas, tender replies
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue

Lovers in flight, upward they glide
Burst at the height, slowly subside
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue

And my slumbering fantasy assumes reality
Until it seems it's not a dream, the two are you and me
Shades of delight, cocoa hue, rich as the night, afro blue


Recordings exist by Abbey Lincoln (1960), Oscar Brown Jr, Dianne Reeves, Lyambiko, Lizz Wright, Judy Niemack, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Cynthia Felton, Lisa Engelken, Robert Glasper Experiment ft Erykah Badu, Molly Holm, Harold Mabern ft Gregory Porter, etc.