Minnie Riperton — Les Fleur
Come To My Garden · 1970
Label: Cadet Concept · Genre: Soul / Psychedelic Soul · Country: USA · From: Chicago, IL, North America
Come To My Garden was produced by Charles Stepney in 1970 and sold almost nothing on release. It is now considered one of the most extraordinary albums in soul history. Stepney built orchestral architecture around Riperton's five-octave voice — strings, woodwinds, harp — in arrangements of such complexity that the record sounds like it arrived from another era. Riperton, who was 23 when it was recorded, was the only singer who could navigate what he was building. She died of cancer at 31, in 1979.
Did you know: Come To My Garden was produced by Charles Stepney, who was simultaneously arranging for Ramsey Lewis and Earth Wind & Fire. When Riperton signed to Epic and released Lovin’ You in 1975, few knew the song had been written as a lullaby for her daughter Maya, later Maya Rudolph of SNL. Riperton died of breast cancer in 1979, aged 31. President Carter awarded her the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award just months before her death.
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