Cassandra Wilson at New Jersey Performing Arts

[Brad]

Last week I saw Cassandra Wilson at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. My company has a subscription there so whenever they dole out the tickets for jazz, they call me or one other person since there's not that many of us around. I only knew her by reputation, having heard little by her and owning no cds. But heck it was free, so why not. What a disappointment. She sang 8 songs for about 45 minutes or so and I kept saying to myself, "where's the jazz?" When she played Last Train to Clarksville, my wife told me to stop muttering to myself. As a fellow fan mentioned to me yesterday, she's got a nice package but doesn't like the delivery. Maybe she sang jazz once, but this was sheer pop, and frankly, it wasn't good pop. When I mentioned to my fellow fan that I'd also hated Judie Silvano (Joe Lovano's wife), he said, "boy, you sure can pick 'em." Man, he wasn't kidding. As I said to my wife, please shoot me if I want to go see another vocalist!

Edited November 27, 2003 by Brad

[Harold_Z]

WBGO announced they were going to a live brodacast of (I guess) the first show of the evening. I was going to try and get it on cdr and totally forgat about it. I had a feeling it would be a drag...they were playing a tune from her latest album and I couldn't change the station fast enough. VERY boring.

[jazzbo]

That's wild. I haven't grabbed the latest yet, but I've loved the two preceding a lot, and I would have expected (and may have experienced) a better show. Her music isn't traditionally jazzy on the surface, but. . . to me on the recordings at least it is really there. She's got a lot deeper shiz going on than some of these other newbie jazz singers. . . she's paid the dues and she has the smarts.

[danasgoodstuff]

IMHO, I repeat IMHO, Cassandra Wilson singing "Last Train to Clarksville" (or Muddy or whatever...) is more/better jazz than Diana (makes my skin) Krall (or whoever) singing standards...but that's IMHO...

[Harold_Z]

Maybe I was just not in a receptive mode - I'm not adverse to listening further and I remember hearing something last summer that I liked from her current release at that time. I think it was a blues album at the time (?).

[JSngry]

Although I cannot comment on the particular performance in question, having not heard it, all I can say is that it's the singer, not the song, more often than not.

As well as that I think it's about time that 30 & 40-somethings in the jazz realm start to confront the material that shaped them, as well as that that shaped their parents and grandparents.

It's all good if you do the right thing with it. What that right thing is is up to the performer, but if nobody starts, nobody will ever eventually get it right.

[Alexander]

Wilson does *not* sing jazz in the "traditional" sense, by which I mean that she sings very few standards and does not employ the trumpet-tenor saxophone-piano-bass-drums instrumentation that people generally associate with jazz. For myself, I'm a big fan and I can tell you that what she does *is* jazz, even though it might not sound like jazz to you. Yes, she covers pop songs. So did Billie Holiday. Can you tell me exactly why "What a Little Moonlight Can Do" is more intrinsicly "jazz" than "Last Train to Clarksville," "The Weight," or "Lay, Lady, Lay?"

Wilson was here in Albany last weekend, and I had wanted to see her, but my wife and I had a prior engagement. Maybe next time!

Edited November 29, 2003 by Alexander

[Brad]

Well I guess we'll disagree about this. You can tell when someone "sounds like" jazz. Many bands/groups have different instrumentation, not all the same, but you can tell what you're listening to. Many songs can be adapted to jazz, that's true, and perhaps in the right hands Last Train can be too. But what's coming out of her mouth is not jazz, Alexander. Look, I understand that sticking to jazz is not financially viable so she's probably moved on from there. But I can tell what I'm listening to is jazz or not. It's like what Justice Potter Stewart said many years ago, I can't defined pornography, but I know it when I see it.

[kh1958]

You need some new glasses. Cassandra Wilson is a jazz musician, and a very good one.

[Dmitry]

Wilson is tapping into the larger audience these days. belly of the Sun was in the *female contemporary* genre.

I was in the audience when she taped her Bravo special. Almost 3 hours of live Cassandra Wilson, q&a , performances from the Belly of the Sun and all. It was very good, but she didn't sing jazz that night, which she very well can do.

Brad, do yourself a favor, pick up Jimmy Scott's *Holding back the years* and your faith in seeing jazz singers live will be restored. Like the man said, it's not the song , it's the singer..

[Alexander]

Wilson is tapping into the larger audience these days. belly of the Sun was in the *female contemporary* genre.

If that's the case, then "Blue Light Till Dawn," "New Moon Daughter," and "Traveling Miles" were also in the "female contemporary" genre, since they all had the same instrumentation and the same eclectic mix of sounds and material as did "Belly of the Sun." Wilson does stretch the definition of jazz to include blues, pop, and world music influences. It would be entirely accurate to call what Wilson does "fusion," as it fuses jazz with a number of other genres. But it's still jazz.

As for Brad's point about whether or not you can tell when something "sounds like" jazz, I challenge you to play a record by Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers next to "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck next to a Cecil Taylor album next to "Bitches Brew" and tell me in what way these albums "sound like" jazz. You'll find that apart from improvisation (which is the defining characteristic of jazz), these records have very little in common.

The thing that makes Wilson jazz has to do with her phrasing and the way she improvises on the written melody. No, she's not Sarah Vaughan or Dinah Washington (both of whom were also great). She's Cassandra Wilson. She does something different. Can't hack that? Don't listen.

[Brad]

Obviously Dave Brubeck and Jelly Roll are very different. But they fit in jazz. Their styles fit into that rubric. As far as not listening to her, oh, you can take that one to the bank.

Also you mention that Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan are also great, which implies that you believe that Cassandra Wilson belongs in that company. Please let's not insult them by grouping Ms. Wilson with her.

Edited November 30, 2003 by Brad

[Alexander]

Obviously Dave Brubeck and Jelly Roll are very different. But they fit in jazz. Their styles fit into that rubric. As far as not listening to her, oh, you can take that one to the bank.

Also you mention that Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan are also great, which implies that you believe that Cassandra Wilson belongs in that company. Please let's not insult them by grouping Ms. Wilson with her.

Oh, please tell me what that rubric *is*. Because I can tell you that Brubeck *isn't* jazz as Jelly Roll Morton would recognize it. I notice you didn't even mention Cecil Taylor or "Bitches Brew." Do those fit into the "rubric?" When does the "rubric" begin, and when and how often does it change? If the "rubric" started in, say, 1900 then nothing after 1920 fits into it. If the "rubric" changed to include jazz of the 20s, 30s, 40s, etc., then why can't the "rubric" change to accomidate Cassandra Wilson?

Have you ever listened to The Brian Blade Fellowship, btw? Very eclectic music that has more in common with, say, Wilson than with Wynton Marsalis. I suppose that isn't jazz either, huh? Can a group that includes pedal steel guitar be considered jazz?

Not only do I place Cassandra Wilson in the company of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan, I place her in the company of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Carmen McRae, and Abbey Lincoln.

[Brad]

I'm not really interested in prolonging this too much more, except to say that what jazz has been an evolving concept for over a century. Obviously, what Jelly Roll played is different than what Bird played and different from Bird to electric Miles. Could in the evolving concept of jazz, Cassandra Wilson be placed in there? Sure, I agree with you there. Jazz has always had a big tent of inclusion to it. I don't really believe you can place her in the same pantheon of Billie or Ella, but we have our own opinions about that.

I believe my original point was that it wasn't jazz or didn't sound like it to me. Obviously, you disagree and are a big fan of hers, which I think is great. I didn't care for the performance. I'm sure you would have liked it. You have your views and I have mine. So we'll leave it at that and move on.

[Alexander]

I believe my original point was that it wasn't jazz or didn't sound like it to me.

The former was your original point, the latter was the point I was trying to make. It was certainly never my intention to convert you or anything like that. It didn't sound like jazz to you, but there's a great deal of jazz that may not sound like jazz to you...that doesn't mean it's not jazz. Remember, there were those who said that Trane wasn't playing jazz. There were those who said that Bird wasn't playing jazz!

You likes what you likes. Only narrow-minded bigots would decry an artist they don't care for as "not playing jazz." You're not a narrow-minded bigot, are you? Of course you're not. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't dig Cassandra's show. You might enjoy the Verve "Sings Standards" collection, which would probably be a bit more up your alley (standards sung with a traditional jazz combo), if you'll ever consider giving Cassandra a second chance. This was actually the material that originally got me into her!

[JSngry]

Cassandra's POINT OF VIEW (on JMT, and possibly her first album)), a collection of standards and originals, has a cuppla guest spots from Grachan Mocur III.

And then there's her work with Air, from way back in the day. Cassandra was once the Hot Ticket Du Jour in terms of being the "next great jazz singer", and back then, "they" really meant "jazz" in its unambiguous sense.

Point is, regardless of whether or not one loves or loathes her current appraoch, she's got a fairly deep history doing "straight" jazz, and doing it well. Some view her current direction as a sellout, others as a move into more personal territory. I fall into the latter camp, but that's not my point. My point is merely that whatever she does now, she does with a fairly significant jazz pedigreee behind her.

[Rooster_Ties]

I'm not much for vocal jazz in general (and thus I own very little vocal jazz), but I do have a boatload of Steve Coleman CD's, and Ms. Wilson guests on about half-a-dozen of his discs, with results I find both interesting and enjoyable. (I know that sounds like faint praise, but you gotta realize I really don't go for vocal jazz much.)

[Soul Stream]

Singers are a hard win for me. Either it is or it ain't. Wilson "ain't" for me. Jimmy Scott could sing a menu and make me cry. Wilson just doesn't do it for me in any way, except visually .

Instrumentalists can hide behind technique. I DO respect her talents. Just not my cup of tea. I'm not sure what could blow me away vocally in the jazz catagory anymore. The greatest vocalists seemed to have already been there and done that.