Jazz Articles about Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson: Closer to You: The Pop Side

by Ian Patterson
June 19, 2009

Any vocalist who can take an old chestnut like “St. James Infirmary" and make it swing and crackle like never before, as Cassandra Wilson did on the wonderful Loverly(Blue Note, 2008), is surely something a bit special. Wilson's ability to make old material sound freshly minted is nothing new however, and Closer to You: The Pop Side isn't a quickly recorded cash-in on the cross-over appeal of Loverly, but a compilation of very personal interpretations of popular songs she has ...

Cassandra Wilson: Closer To You: The Pop Side

by Mark F. Turner
April 27, 2009

One of the eminent jazz singers of this time, Cassandra Wilson's deep timbre is as unmistakable as it is alluring. Her acumen as a musician, her voice an exquisite instrument and the way she interprets and arranges songs--uniquely filled with soul and emotion--would set her in the upper echelon of singers regardless of genre. From roots in Mississippi, where she began playing music at the age of five to her involvement in the advanced music theories of M-Base with saxophonist ...

Cassandra Wilson in Albany, NY

by R.J. DeLuke
March 26, 2009

Cassandra WilsonThe EggAlbany, New YorkMarch 22, 2009

“The music has a wonderful life beyond the recording," said renowned singer Cassandra Wilson about the music on her Grammy-winning CD from last year, Loverly. She spoke those words just days before her band made a tour stop at The Egg concert venue in Albany, NY, on March 22.

“It continues to grow and evolve. Really special and interesting things are happening with this project," she ...

Cassandra Wilson: Creating Loverly Sound

by R.J. DeLuke
September 9, 2008

The deep, rich voice of Cassandra Wilson, now among the most exalted of jazz vocalists, is something to savor. She has an adventurous spirit when it comes to her music, and whether playing with original melodies, or turning others songs--of jazz, folk, blues or pop origin--inside out, it's always something to relish, like a fine brandy that can be felt sweetly burning down to the stomach then spreading the glow back up where it can be felt warming the ears.

Cassandra Wilson: Loverly

by Suzanne Lorge
July 20, 2008

When Cassandra Wilson played New York's Blue Note Jun. 9th, she let her band jam a long time before she stepped into the heavy mix of groove and musical jest among the instrumentalists. The room was sweltering because of the day's heat and the seemingly absent air conditioning, but Wilson never broke a sweat. Wilson always stands at the center of the musical tempest (hot syncopation, cool blues, or breezy harmonization) as it swirls around her and on her new ...

Cassandra Wilson: Jazz Roots

by Suzanne Lorge
July 12, 2008

Over the last two decades Cassandra Wilson has emerged as one of the most celebrated jazz singers in the world--and with one album a year since 1985, she also ranks as one of the most prolific. Because of her openness to experimentation with grooves and repertoire, Wilson's work over the years has expanded our definition of what vocal jazz is--and perhaps in some ways has called into question whether vocal jazz has any defining characteristics at all.The through ...

Cassandra Wilson: Loverly

by Chris May
June 4, 2008

Cassandra Wilson's Loverly is amongst the singer's most straight-ahead and stripped down albums since her debut for Blue Note fifteen years ago with Blue Light 'Til Dawn (Blue Note, 1993). Self-produced, and recorded in a rented house in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi with little artifice, simple arrangements and a great sound, Wilson and a core quintet of regular playing partners deliver ten standards, Robert Johnson's “Dust My Blues," and one band original, the West African-derived “Arere."

Wilson ...