Customer Reviews

Glamoured

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One of the simple pleasures of life is putting a Cassandra Wilson disc into the player and hitting "start". Her voice takes me to a spot that few singers know how to reach...and "Glamoured" proves, once again, why Cassandra is one of our most important performers.
This release is a great mix of brilliantly conceived covers and incredible originals. One of the fascinating things about being a CW fan is following the growth of her talents as a songwriter. While the promise was always there (think "Redbone"), with each new release, her songwriting skills have grown stronger, to where we now have originals that rival the covers she chooses. No where is this more evident than on the toe tapping "I Want More", with an outsanding drum contribution from Terri Lyne Carrington, and "On This Train" where that haunting smoky voice just shines through - this is the type of song that reminds you why you love Cassandra's vocals.
As always, the cover choices are both inspired and radically reinterpretted. Sting's "Fragile" and Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" are well done, but Cassandra rips through her take of Muddy Waters' "Honey Bee" (here's hoping someday she delivers an entire project devoted to the blues as she has talked about), and she makes Willie Nelson's "Crazy" her own. But the ABSOLUTE highlight of this project is Cassandra's take on Luther Ingram's 70's R&B classic "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right)". This version of the song is gut wrenching - with Cassandra's voice conveying more emotion than any singer in today's marketplace. This song gets everything right - mood, instrumentation, vocals...it is passionate and painful, as classic soul music was always meant to be.
Cassandra, as always, gets everything right on "Glamoured". This is a wonderful release.

I am a huge fan of music and I don't limit myself to the boundaries set by genres or backrounds. With that said, I was blown away by the quality and scope of this recording. It is truly an album for music lovers no matter what your tastes. Cassandra has always been a great vocalist and performer but with this album she throws away all her past and brings a fresh new feel to her work. Producer Fabrizio Sotti who also plays guitar and writes some of the songs is the obvious catalyst that Cassandra needed to reach this new level. Sotti from what I have read doubles as a hip-hop/R&B producer and jazz artist. This array of influences is felt throught the album while still staying true to it's jazz roots. The sound and mix of the recording is also her best to date and I have no other choice but to credit Sotti for this fact. Producers are the spine of albums and in this particular instance...Sotti shines. From start to finish it begs to be listened to. Cassandra Wilson is truly one of the most creative and talented vocalists of our time. In "I want More", she shines with a performance that is obviously not scripted and that comes from the soul. And in "what is it", she is achieving, for the first time in my opinion, the new sound of what she should stick with for the future. I hope that she works with Sotti again and highly recommend buying this album. It will not disapoint.

Ho-hum. Another near-flawless album by Cassandra Wilson. Although she sticks close to formula-another Dylan cover, another gut-bucket blues classic-- there are subtle changes with this cd. Notably, it is as much a showcase for Italian producer/guitarist Fabrizio Sotti as it is for Wilson. Although we were prepared for her warm, expressive vocal stylings, it is Sotti's glimmering guitar work that is the stand-out surprise. This cd has an even lighter, more intimate feel than usual and a soothing, Latin touch, which appear to be a result of Sotti's influence, as well. Half the songs on 'Glamoured' were written by Wilson (most with Sotti). If they are not quite as good as her covers, it is simply because her choice of material is so impeccable. Besides, she takes ownership of any song she sings, anyway.

A jazz singer with the heart of a folk singer and the soul of a blues singer, Wilson also has exceptional taste in song, along with original arranging skills. Wilson also seemingly has no musical prejudices. She is equally at home interpreting the music of the Beatle-mimic Monkees ("Last Train to Clarksville", New Moon Daughter) as that of blues pioneer Robert Johnson ("Come on in My Kitchen," Blue Light `Til Dawn). Likewise, she is equally comfortable recording a song by country icon Willie Nelson ("Crazy," Glamoured) as one by outspoken jazz purist Abby Lincoln ("Throw it Away," Glamoured). And she is as comfortable with folk rock songwriter Bob Dylan ("Lay Lady Lay," Glamoured) as jazz composer Miles Davis ("Seven Steps to Heaven," Traveling Miles). Moreover, she can make the most banal seeming material sound profound (as in her haunting, bluesy take on "Last Train to Clarksville"). Wilson can make you appreciate songs and songwriters that you might otherwise not give a second thought, such as when she recorded "Witchita Lineman " (Belly of the Sun) by the underrated `60s and `70s songwriter Jimmy Webb, composer, for better or worse, of the song "McArthur Park, " ("someone left the cake out in the rain . . . "). Part of Wilson's unprejudicial outlook on music can be explained by her southern upbringing, and on her latest CD, Glamoured, Wilson returned to her Mississippi roots both figuratively and literally, as she recorded many of the tracks in Jackson, including the Muddy Waters song "Honey Bee." After the completion of the Mississippi sessions, Wilson returned to New York, where she enlisted the help of Italian guitarist, composer, and producer Fabrizio Sotti for the remainder of the tracts, including the Sting song "Fragile."

Cassandra Wilson is an original. After years of swinging with a trio, she switched gears and turned to a less traditional sound: lots of guitar and percussion. The result is an earthy fusion of jazz, folk, pop, blues and R&B. When you hear the soul in this woman's husky voice and the way she wraps her style around a lyric, you'll understand why Time Magazine declared her "America's Best Singer." On this CD,
Wilson applies her golden touch to Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay," Sting's "Fragile" and even the untouchable "Crazy."

Cassandra Wilson is one of those artists whose style is understated almost to the point of laziness. It takes more than one listen to appreciate the vocal nunances that make her great but, I now dig what she's doing. I absolutely enjoyed Glamoured for the sheer vocal magic of Wilson's smokey vocals. She particularly shines on I Want More, Lay Lady Lay, If Loving You Is Wrong, Crazy, and Honey Bee. Cassandra has been doing her thing for some time ....I'm happy I finally caught up.

Another person said that this isn't their favorite Cassandra Wilson album, that this work was a fairly typical album. I would agree with it being a typical album by her in so much as her "typical" album is one filled with intense mood, achingly seductive vocals, absorption into the song's emotions, and covering material that she contemporizes. I found myself drifting with the the Italian scented music. Thinking about times in my life that the material touched. This album is great and work from her is always welcome..each song fills you with someting different from smiles to wet eyes.

This CD is very much along the same lines as New Moon Daughter, Belly of The Sun, Blue Light Til Dawn. Nice renditions of "If Loving You Is Wrong", "Fragile" and "Crazy." My favorite cuts are "I Want More" and "What Is It?" If you're a Cassandra fan, then I don't think this will disappoint as it doesn't break any new ground (for me). It's pretty standard and I like that!

Applies her now distinctive fusion-Delta steel, jazz, deep funkiness, and the voice-to a wide range of songs, making them all her own. Many reveal the originals only with close attention. Most coherent collection of her settings that I can recall-all as quiet but insistent and vital as the sound of your blood passing in your veins. The jazz-funk-country blues captures the calm of night in a swamp, but also the vague foreboding of a primordial presence there. Lyrics of tr 1 by Sting capture the mood of the cd as a whole: "Like rain from the stars, how fragile we are." That said, I repeatedly hear her voice as another instrument in the mix before I hear any words. [53:29]

What a stunningly beautiful album. Cassandra just keeps getting better and better, I think this her best album yet. The opening cover of "Fragile" is surprising and lovely, her vocals embrace the haunting track perfectly. "Lay Lady Lay" is a captivating as is the rest of the album. The last album I was this excited about was Rhian Benson's "Gold Coast" and now I see her as a young Cassandra. Cassandra's mastery of jazz inflection is mesmerizing. Yes, I love it, love it, love it!