Customer Reviews

Loverly

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!

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".

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

Seeing other very positive reviews, I guess I was expecting something special. It is good, for sure, but there are a few aspects which stop it being great. The informality of the session is nice, but it does sometimes sound like a rehearsal. Wilson's voice has that unusual but appealing lugubriousness, but she does occasionally let herself down intonation-wise. The band are fine individually but sometimes get in each others' way. For example, when Sewell and Moran are both comping behind Wilson,it gets a bit too cluttered for my taste. Indeed, Sewell is a guitarist who I'd happily go to see perform, but I don't regard him as an ideal accompanist (rather like having Scofield there--that wouldn't work as well as , say Anthony Wilson or Russell Malone)

Cassandra Wilson at her best.
Wonderful, interesting interpretations of well-known songs with a team of musician who really bring out the best of Cassandra.
My favorite: Caravan! Rarely presented with such cool.
Contrary to some of the other reviewers I judge Ms Wilson's detached and apparently uncommitted way of delivering the songs as a great asset of this CD.

On first thought, I didn't think Cassandra was up to the task of covering such songs as "Lover Come Back to Me" and "Loverly," but she made a fool out of me by giving these vintage pieces nice new turns with her distinctive voice. Still, she seems more at home on such songs as "St. James Infirmary" and "Dust My Broom," recalling her earlier forays into the Blues on Blue Light Til Dawn and New Moon Daughter. All in all, this is a very good album with excellent accompaniment by Jason Moran and Lonnie Plaxico.

Wouldn't it be? Wilson thinks so, as she inhales a Southern aire and blows a serious blues jones into the lungs of these somewhat shopworn mannequins, breathing heat back into their Broadway bones. "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is a bittersweet treat. "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" blithely skips over the crumbling concrete of disappointment. "Black Orpheus" is all haloed streetlamps in a midnight fog. Throughout, Wilson's warmth is palpable, heightened by the "liveness" of the recording. Wilson sings on, over, and around the beat; she clicks, claps, and finger snaps, exhorting her musicians to a communal "one." Let yourself get swept in. Everybody gets the blues; Wilson turns `em into jazzy rainbows.

I purchased this based on a recommendation from TAS. Thanks to TAS this is a welcome addition to my music collection. I love the Latin flavored jazz melodies and harmonics performed with feeling. To top it all off, a big silky smooth voice coming from a small woman. Amazing voice with lots of emotion. This is my first exposure to Cassandra Wilson. This CD is fantastic and I will be on the lookout for her future projects.

You can not go wrong with Cassandra Wilson. Though this album does not reach -- in my humble estimation -- the depths nor heights of Blue Light 'Til Dawn, there is always a place for her comtemplative and purely communicative expression in whatever time you devote to listening, really listening, to music. SHe is a jazz staple, and much deserves to be revered along with Billie, Ella and Sarah.

Cassandra has returned to the style of song and back up support that developed her original fan base. Hopefully, she will continue to explore more jazz related material that really brings out the unique voice of Cassandra Wilson.