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Loverly
:Album Description:Long considered one of the finest singers in the jazz world, Cassandra Wilson's new album is a tour de force of emotion, technique, interpretation and style as she brings her considerable powers to this collection of classic songs. Once again she has gathered a band of shining talent, featuring the brilliant Jason Moran on Piano with guitarist Marvin Sewell and Lonnie Plaxico on bass - a band that is so good together that Cassandra was happy to sit in the producer's chair and let the songs speak for themselves. Featuring incredible interpretations ...
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Blue Light 'Til Dawn
: essential recording:Cassandra Wilson is a postmodern jazz singer, a conceptualist who sees no dividing lines between genres. If her career had commenced in the 1970s rather than the label-conscious 1990s she would have been marketed as a mainstream pop diva. Her magnificent voice and interpretive genius mark her as a jazz singer for the ages, however. She finds her material wherever her fancy takes her and remakes it in her own image, whether it be the country blues of Robert Johnson's 'Come On in My Kitchen' and 'Hellhound On My Trail,' the ...
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Belly of the Sun
:Album Description:Belly of The Sun, her fourth release for Blue Note Records, is the classic Cassandra Wilson journey, where borders and boundaries are sometimes pushed, sometimes expanded, sometimes eliminated but always discounted as limitations. Embracing Blues, African, Jazz, R&B, Brazilian and pop sensibilities, Belly of the Sun, is an invitation into the many sounds that have filtered through the musical landscape of the South. Featuring both original material and startling interpretations of material by other songwriters such as The Band, Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson, Belly of The Sun is full of the ...
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New Moon Daughter
: essential recording:Her luscious alto has the depth and texture of a great tenor saxophonist, but Cassandra Wilson's defining asset is a postmodern song sense that enables her to surf through Son House, Neil Young, Johnny Mercer, Billie Holiday, and (gasp!) the Monkees in pursuit of strong songs that can provide that instrument with a canvas. Her second Blue Note album extends Wilson's seductive pilgrimage beyond the conventions of jazz repertoire and accompaniment, yet it's her instincts as a jazz singer that inform these brilliant readings. The settings again step away from traditional ...
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Traveling Miles
: :Cassandra Wilson's tribute to Miles Davis, Traveling Miles, is nothing if not ambitious--easily on par with the other slew of Davis tribs. Covering the great trumpeter's long career is alone quite a challenge, but Wilson sets her goals even higher by writing new lyrics and arrangements that make these tunes her own. The result is a pleasure that ends up capturing Wilson's spirit as well as Davis's. Never one to hew to traditional jazz's formats, Wilson adds acoustic and slide guitars, percussion, harmonica, and other instruments that give the album an enormously varied ...
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Rendezvous
: essential recording:Throughout Cassandra Wilson's career, jazz critics have been presuming to tell her what to do. Instead, she maintains her own impressive balance among jazz standards, other popular songs, and originals, and among a 'jazz' approach, a guitar-based country blues spareness, and art-pop inspired by one of her greatest influences, Joni Mitchell. Here she reminds us that she can bring tremendous freshness to standards. Star pianist Jacky Terrasson makes it almost easy for her. His standout contribution, though, is a tinkling, decidedly late-autumnal solo 'Autumn Leaves.' Bassist Lonnie Plaxico and percussionist Mino ...
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Thunderbird
: : With a series of terrific albums, Cassandra Wilson has established herself as one of the day's great vocalists and, in branching out from jazz into blues and folk and pop, paved the way for genre-crossing stars including Norah Jones. But the Mississippi native has rarely sounded as relaxed or winning as she does on 'Thunderbird,' which teams her with the stalwart O Brother Where Art Thou? producer T Bone Burnett. Recorded mostly in Los Angeles, the album is noteworthy not only for its roomy, atmospheric sound and experimental touches, but also for ...
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War of the Worlds
: :John Williams continues his longtime collaboration with Steven Spielberg in this adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel of the same name (previously filmed in 1953). Considering that the movie depicts a gigantic Martian invasion, you'd think Williams would have fully gone into his familiar bombastic mode, but he's refrained from doing so. While the composer makes full use of the outsize orchestra at his disposal, he prefers juxtaposing layers and building atmosphere rather than hitting you over the head with dramatic arias. 'The Intersection Scene,' for instance, begins slowly and minimally, then progressively ...
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Sings Standards
: :Jazz fans who complain about not hearing enough jazz in Cassandra Wilson's eclectic sound, which has increasingly tilted toward pop and blues, will find ample rewards in this collection of her (relatively) straight-ahead efforts from the late '80s. Drawing from four albums for the JMT label, it charts her steady growth away from Brooklyn's electric, funk-based M-Base school and into an earthier, more personal approach. Going to school herself on Betty Carter's elastic time feel and unhurried rhythms, she avoids predictability on songs such as ''Round Midnight' and a wordless rendering of Billy ...
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She Who Weeps
: :Jazz fans who complain about not hearing enough jazz in Cassandra Wilson's eclectic sound, which has increasingly tilted toward pop and blues, will find ample rewards in this collection of her (relatively) straight-ahead efforts from the late '80s. Drawing from four albums for the JMT label, it charts her steady growth away from Brooklyn's electric, funk-based M-Base school and into an earthier, more personal approach. Going to school herself on Betty Carter's elastic time feel and unhurried rhythms, she avoids predictability on songs such as ''Round Midnight' and a wordless rendering of Billy ...
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