Cassandra WILSON - New Moon Daughter 1996
Jazz
NEW MOON DAUGHTER won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
From the opening cut, a jagged, ominous deconstruction of Billie Holiday's classic "Strange Fruit," it's clear that there is something unusual going on here. ... Full DescriptionCassandra Wilson is essentially coming at pop tunes from a jazz singer's perspective. Of course many other singers, from Nina Simone to Tony Bennett, have done this before; what sets Wilson apart is that rather than making faux standards out of contemporary songs, she uses her jazz chops to approach the material from an entirely new direction. The result is a bold amalgam that is neither pop nor jazz, but owes debts to both traditions.
Producer Craig Street gives Wilson's adventurous tendencies full reign as she goes on to cover Hank Williams, the Monkees and U2. This time Street, who also produced 1993's BLUE LIGHT 'TIL DAWN, focuses a little more on her unusual, Joni Mitchell-esque open tunings on acoustic guitar, and there are more original Wilson compositions, which also echo middle-period Joni. Betwixt all those tools and the classic pop material, Wilson creates a new world in which her voice moves freely through genre lines with grace and vitality.
From CD Universe.
**
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 small group jazz (for starters, there's no piano) to evoke the emotional core of these songs. Anyone who can turn the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville" into a slow-burning erotic vignette deserves your attention.
By Sam Sutherland.
**
If any one vocalist embodies the skills, styles, and creativity of the 21st-century jazz singer, it is Cassandra Wilson. Early on, Wilson aspired to sound like Betty Carter - "to be Betty," she said in a 1996 JAZZIZ interview. But Carter implored Wilson to find her own way, and that she's done. Building upon the legacies of Carter and many other standard-bearing singers, yet focusing on her own personal influences, Wilson has achieved astonishing popular and critical success.
JAZZIZ Magazine.
**
Cassandra Wilson- (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar);
Graham Haynes, Lawrence "Butch" Morris- (coronet);
Tony Cedras- (Accordion);
Dougie Bowne- (Vibraphone, Drums, Percussion);
Charlie Burnham- (Violin);
Gary Breit- (Hammond B-3 organ);
Brandon Ross- (Acoustic, Electric & Octave Guitars);
Kevin Breit- (Acoustic, resophonic & Electric Guitars, Tenor Banjo, Irish Bozouki);
Chris Whitley- (Resophonic Guitar);
Gib Wharton- (Pedal Steel);
Lonnie Plaxico, Marc Anthony Peterson- (Bass);
Jeff Haynes- (Percussion);
Cyro Baptista- (Percussion, Jews Harp);
The Peepers- (Background Vocals).
**
01. Strange Fruit 5:35
02. Love Is Blindness 4:53
03. Solomon Sang 5:56
04. Death Letter 4:13
05. Skylark 4:08
06. Find Him 4:39
07. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry 4:51
08. Last Train To Clarksville 5:16
09. Until 6:30
10. A Little Warm Death 5:45
11. Memphis 5:05
12. Harvest Moon 5:01
**
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