One for Me is literally
One for Her, her being Shirley Scott, soul jazz pioneer and organist, and one of the few female bandleaders of the '60s.
One for Me was recorded in 1974 with saxophonist Harold Vick and drummer Billy Higgins, a continuation of her preferred trio ensemble arrangement, and came along a few years after her divorce from saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, with whom she was a frequent collaborator. Culminating during a lull in a very storied career, one which saw Shirley releasing albums on the NYC-based Prestige and Creed Taylor's Impulse! Records, among others, the impetus for a solo record of this kind was a shade of enterprise directed towards vindication and edification: a conviction to utilize the talents she had honed for others to precipitate a performance that reflected her unaltered vision, without deviation or compromise- the indulgence of a satisfaction that was her own, and a pleasure that topped off her chalice before cascading into the waiting cup of another. Shirley's handling of the Hammond B-3 holds court somewhere between God's house and a smoke-saturated subterranean saloon, a crossroads of Gospel and bebop that is as heavenly as it is heavy with pensive purple dreams and cerulean introspection. Despite it all, there is a gaiety and an ebullience to the ambiance that spills out from Shirley's moody sonic exposition, one that gives it the airy din of laughter; there is a posh sort of rapture in this run, almost as if it were her very soul stroking these keys and pedals rather than the work of human hands and feet.
