2017 · Album
Dreams and Daggers
Mack Avenue Records · Released: September 29, 2017 · Format: Two CDs or three LPs
A Standard Embrace, Immediately Recognized
Fred Kaplan called it the best jazz vocal album in a decade, maybe longer.
Dreams and Daggers arrived fully formed and immediately acknowledged. When Cécile McLorin Salvant released this album in 2017, the critical response was swift and emphatic. Fred Kaplan at Stereophile didn't hedge—he called it the best jazz vocal album in a decade, maybe in longer than that. AllMusic reviewer Matt Collar gave it five stars, describing it as a thoughtfully curated selection of standards and originals centered on romance and heartbreak. The Evening Standard gave it five stars as well. This wasn't an album that had to find its audience over time. It landed and people heard it.
The album itself mixes live and studio recordings across two CDs or three LPs, a format that lets Salvant move between the immediacy of performance and the precision of controlled takes. She wasn't departing radically from what she'd done before—this fits within her established approach to standards and original material—but the collection here feels both focused and expansive. AllMusic's description nails what's at stake: romance and heartbreak, which are perennial jazz subjects, but treated with real specificity rather than routine repetition.
The album's recognition extended beyond critical praise. It earned Salvant her second Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album and her third Grammy nomination overall. It was also nominated for the 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. This level of institutional acknowledgment arrived in the same year as the critical raves, which is unusual—many albums build reputations gradually, but Dreams and Daggers had both immediate critical validation and rapid award recognition. For listeners looking to understand where Salvant stands in her career, this album functions as one of her strongest statements, a moment when everything clicked at once.
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