Loverly

Cassandra Wilson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B0016NCTH2
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,644 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Cassandra Wilson's Loverly is something more than just her unique spin on songs from long ago. For this set, she has assembled an impressive core group of musicians to accompany her: Jason Moran on piano, Lonnie Plaxico on acoustic upright bass, and Marvin Sewell on guitar. Her low and hypnotic contralto glides so knowingly through each song that they would seem to be of her own creation--but aren't. To be sure, each of the 12 songs found on Loverly are stamped with her trademark Delta-baby, bluesy style (most noticeably on "Dust My Broom"). But Wilson and company have taken it one step further by turning tear-jerkers such as "Til There Was You" and "The Very Thought of You" into sultry bubblers that invite ballads into the bedroom. Throw in the moody "Black Orpheus" and her funky, down-to-business take on "St. James Infirmary," and it doesn't take long to realize that Loverly is a complete attempt to satisfy the soul; a sexy mesh that dares rival anything Cassandra Wilson has released before it. --Eric C.P. Martin

Product 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 of the classics like Black Orpheus, Caravan, and The Very Thought of You, Cassandra is one of the few singers that can genuinely re-invent a song that we all think we know, such as Wouldn't It Be Loverly and turn it breathe new emotional life into it. However, the standout track has to be the stunning funky, soulful, brooding St. James Infirmary which has become a staple of her live set

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars She stamps her distinctive personality on familiar songs., June 11, 2008

By 

steamy blues - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loverly (Audio CD)

Back in the Eighties, the American singer Cassandra Wilson was a founder of the M-Base movement which mixed African culture with funk and avant-garde jazz.
For more than a decade, however, she's achieved commercial and critical success by re-imagining unexpected material as bluesy jazz.
Her new album is ostensibly a straightforward collection of standards, even tackling "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from the musical "My Fair Lady" (My Fair Lady (1956 Original Broadway Cast)), but it also embraces gentle experimentation grounded in the percussion of African drum expert Lekan Babalola.
Thus Dixieland classic "St James Infirmary" becomes a rolling percussive groove and the whole album thrives on jamming between piano and rhythm section.
Certainly easy on the ear, "Loverly" also nudges subtly and playfully at smooth jazz listeners' expectations.
The title just about sums this up, really. It's a cracking album of top-drawer singing, and might just be the best album Wilson has recorded since her debut 15 years ago.
It finds her exploring the standards repertoire with relish and invention, helped by her old friends: guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassists Reggie Veal and Lonnie Plaxico, drummer Herlin Riley, and labelmate and pianist Jason Moran.
Cassandra Wilson's voice has matured into a wonderfully expressive instrument, full of smoky intensity and her way with a lyric is beguiling.
She finds new things to say on old songs like "Gone With the Wind" and the lovely "Black Orpheus".
Cassandra gets into funky form on "St James' Infirmary" and a raunchy "Dust My Broom".
Rush out and buy it.
You will love it!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many fine moments, some funky grooves., August 13, 2008

By 

contempo.jazz (San Francisco/London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loverly (Audio CD)

Cassandra's smoky alto remains one of the most beguiling voices in jazz and blues.
After it was wreathed in a high-tech production by the producer T. Bone Burnett on Thunderbird, she goes back to acoustic basics of traditional jazz vocals here, with a set almost entirely comprised of vintage tunes recorded with a small combo featuring the brilliant pianist du jour, Jason Moran and the guitar of Marvin Sewell.
"Loverly" was produced in a rented house in her Mississippi hometown, with assembled invited musician friends who got down to the business of recording then and there, making this recording so relaxed and personal that it feels like a live set in your own living room.
It's impressive to hear the class and character Cassandra has injected into these 20th century songs.
With the help of Yoruba percussionist Lekan Babalola she knits West African rhythms into stripped-down arrangements, featuring Lonnie Plaxico (bass), Jason Moran (piano) and Herlin Riley (drums).
The decisive player, however, is Nigerian percussionist Lekan Babalola, whose polyrhythmic flurries perk up Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and a version of "Gone With the Wind" whose elegant unison guitar and piano recalls Steely Dan.
He's at the heart of "Arere", inspired by the Yoruban god of willpower, on which Cassandra could be singing in a native dialect, or scatting.
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is a true eye-opener. Cassandra's voice is so deep and resonant it's tangible, and she tells her story of loneliness backed only by Marvin Sewell's silvery acoustic guitar. He reappears playing ethereal slide guitar on "Black Orpheus", supported by Cuban-sounding percussion and piano, under Cassandra's whispered, desolate vocals.
"The Very Thought of You", a sublime duet with guest bassist Reginald Veal, features a rhythmic solo and sinuous vocals.
It is the up-tempo tracks that succeed in turning sparks to flame here. A traddish version of "Lover Come Back To Me" smears Cassandra's mellifluous vocals across Jason Moran's wild piano playing and "Arere", the only original on the album, is a frenetic fusion of unstoppable, cascading rhythms. On "Caravan" too, hectic percussion tumbles over jumbled piano and guitar, with Cassandra's voice at the other side of the room one moment and eerily close the next.
For many, it's Wilson's blues singing that stands out and she invests warhorses such as "St James Infirmary" and "Dust My Broom with a funky vitality.
All in all, not quite a classic, but many fine moments.
Highlights: "Caravan", "St James Infirmary", "Gone With the Wind", and "Arere".

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Critics Choice; Here May Be Why, July 25, 2008

By 

Rick Cornell "RC" (Reno, Nv USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Loverly (Audio CD)

In the August, 2008 issue of "Down Beat," the universe of jazz critics have weighed in. The #1 jazz singer in the world, and by a pretty good margin, is Cassandra Wilson. Though I'm not the world's biggest Cassandra Wilson fan, and though Cassandra Wilson is not my favorite singer, I understand and respect the critical consensus, and I write to give my theory, based on the evidence of "Loverly," on why this is so.

Ever since the seminal "Blue Light "til Dawn" of 1993 (still my favorite Cassandra recording, BTW), Ms. Wilson is the singer who will not be pigeonholed. I gave her last recording, "Thunderbird," 5 stars on the basis of its sheer ingenuity. But I noted that it was questionable to call her a jazz singer; that c.d. was so close to alt rock that it tended to put her in the "uncategorizable" category.

So, what she has done here is to go back to standards. Well, sort of. A c.d. with Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom," and the Yoruban (!) praise song to "Ogun," "Akere" (hey: she never claimed this to be a c.d. of American standards!), can't really be called "standard."

Instead, she starts up where she left off on "Thunderbird," with a unique blend of Afro-centricism, blues, and jazz (Yes, she sings jazz; check out her duet here with Lonnie Plaxico on "The Very Thought of You"). We have the most African version of "Caravan" ever, with a terrific piano solo from Jason Moran. We have blues licks a plenty on "Til There Was You" from "The Music Man." We have riffing around open guitar chords from Marvin Sewell on "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most."

Through it all, Cassandra Wilson knocks off her parts as if it's the easiest thing in the world. Listen to her offhanded version of "Lover Come Back to Me." She sounds like she's playing with the lover who will in time come back to her out of sheer curiosity.

Why is Cassandra #1? This is the most original set of standards since, since...I'd have to say, since "Rendezvous," which was sung by .... Cassandra Wilson with Jacky Terrasson on piano). And it's her first set of standards in 11 years. What other musician comes to mind who may not have been the most technically proficient of all on his instrument, but who kept pushing the edge of the envelope, creating new sound and new directions, to where he was adored and reviled at the same time by seemingly knowledgeable people- and did it as though it were the easiest thing in the world to do?

You got it. Cassandra Wilson is the modern day vocal counterpart to Miles Davis. That's why she's #1 in the critics eyes. No wonder she did a tribute c.d. to Miles ("Traveling Miles") during those 11 years. The shoe fits. RC

p.s. - 2/8/09: This was your 2008 Grammy Award vocal jazz recording. I believe this is the first year since I began reviewing on Amazon.com that I evaluated the eventual Grammy winner at 5 stars. I'm not sure if that means my ears are getting mushier as I grow older, or whether the National Academy of Recording Artists is getting more discerning. I hope the latter! RC