Cassandra Wilson has been touted as one of the finest jazz
vocalists of her generation. At the heart of it all she is a Mississippi girl
who was raised in Jackson and absorbed some of the area’s Delta blues tradition
into her soul. Coincidentally, Ms. Wilson was also affected by the contemporary
sounds of the folk and rock music of her generation. Like any inspired innovator,
she found a way to introduce songs she grew up with into her repertoire. Songs by artists like Van
Morrison, Joni Mitchell and even the Monkees, reworking
them into minor masterpieces of a hybrid sound that is pure Cassandra Wilson.
She possesses a voluptuous contralto voice that she has honed into a
marvelously supple instrument. She can alter timbre and tone with precision and
purpose. Her relaxed, conversational delivery is more folk/blues than jazz-like, but yet
she is an improviser at heart retaining a jazz sensibility in her music. She is a stylist more than a
traditional singer, bringing her own unique interpretation to songs that we
thought we knew. Sometimes, after hearing her versions, we realize that we really didn't have
a clue. For all intents and purposes she defies categorization.
 |
| Cassandra Wilson and Band at PAC SUNY |
On this the opening evening of the Performing Arts Center at
Purchase College’s 2013-2014 season, Ms.
Wilson was joined by her latest band members. Her musical director, the Swiss chromatic
harmonica player Gregoire Maret, the pianist Jon Cowherd, the bassist Lonnie Plaxico, the
guitarist Brandon Ross and the French percussionist Mino Cinelu opened the show
with a soulful but sweet instrumental .
After the opening warm-up from the band Ms.
Wilson walked on the stage to enthusiastic applause. She started the set with a Delta blues
inspired song featuring the sparse but effective solo guitar work of Brandon Ross. Ross has the patience and skill to slowly
build ever increasingly interesting fragments of a song from what seems, at
first, like randomly selected notes. His twangy lines emerge revealing the
barest hint of an identifiable rhythm allowing long spaces for bent, scratchy notes
to simmer in the air like the smell of cooked greens on a hot stove. You can feel of the blues emanate from the body
of his steel guitar as he introduces Charlie Patton’s “Saddle up my Pony.” Chromatic
harmonica player and musical director Gregoire Marmet took up a bass line on
a large mouth organ that emanated low register sounds like a reedy old pump
organ. Ms Wilson’s deliberately paced contralto reading of the lines added the
final touches to this blues classic.
The second selection was the title
song from her latest CD Another Country. The song has a swaying rhythm that is provided
by finger picking by Ross, a walking bass line by Plaxico, some hand percussion
by Cinelu and some harmonica accents by Marmet.
Mr. Marmet is an accomplished chromatic player who has a sweet sound
that lacks the growl of a real blues player-more Toots than Stevie. Ms. Wilson’s
husky voice easily modulates in a cadence that mimics the song’s rhythmic sway.
Twenty years ago Ms. Wilson
released her first Blue Note album titled Blue
Light Till Dawn, so appropriately she played Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” from that CD. In many ways Ms. Wilson’s languid
delivery takes all the yearning sentiment out of the Irishman’s originally
touching version. The re-working, while certainly her own interpretation, is just a bit too listless, devoid of the earnest soulful energy that Mr. Morrison so deftly gave to the
original. Mr. Marmet’s sickeningly sweet
harmonica only accentuates the divide relegating the song into schmaltz, Mr. Plaxico’s buzzing arco
bass at the coda a bit gimmicky.
Ms. Wilson’s willingness to cross artificially
created musical boundaries is part of her appeal. It may not always be a successful
endeavor but she certainly has the fortitude to try to expand her musical
palette. Mr. Cowherd and Mr. Plaxico started the next song “Angola” with an
ostinato piano/bass line with a distinctive samba-like rhythm that seemed to
energize Mr. Cinelu on hand drums. Ms. Wilson clapped her hands and slithered around the stage to the beat as she sang in Portuguese.
When Mr. Cinelu harmonized with her voice it was quite pleasing. Ms. Wilson took a cabasa out of
Cinelu’s hands and the two had the audience clapping in time. Mr. Cinelu exhibited an animated exuberance
that grew in intensity as the rhythm section of Plaxico, Ross and Cowherd pushed the pace. Mr. Cinelu exhibited a poly rhythmic
finale that had the audience cheering.
In a demonstration of
where Ms. Wilson’s re-workings of a song are most effective, the most poignant
part of the evening was when Ms. Wilson and Mr. Ross played the Jimmy Webb
classic “Witchita Lineman” from her album Belly
of the Sun. Here Ms. Wilson’s
purposefully slow and deliberate take accentuated the poignancy of Webb’s simple
lyrics to perfection. The hushed audience was mesmerized and Mr. Marret’s saccharine
sound was able to punctuate the mood to perfection.
In speaking about her
musical upbringing in a recent NPR interview Ms. Wilson said “I still love the
piano, but the guitar is my heart.” On “Red
Guitar,” from her latest CD Another Country, Ms.Wilson picked up a
red telecaster-like electric guitar and sang. There is little need for her to
play with such an able guitarist as Mr. Ross doing all the heavy lifting here,
but it is a homecoming of sorts for Ms. Wilson. It was her early folk/rock/blues
playing in coffee houses and such, often self-accompanied on guitar, where she
learned to nuances of her voice and formed the essence of her style, so it was
nice to here her return to this less produced format. The audience agreed.
Mr. Cowherd’s sensitive side
was heard on an unnamed instrumental
duet between him and Mr. Maret. Mr. Cowherd can play beautifully and his
unassuming demeanor belies his talent. Mr. Maret seemed to thrive in the
pairing, not over playing, simply adding sparse contrapuntal accents that matched
Mr. Cowherd’s chords perfectly.
Ms. Wilson’s successful integration
of pop songs into her vernacular is probably best demonstrated by her re imagining
of the Monkee’s hit “ The Last Train to Clarksville,” which she first covered
on her Grammy award winning album New Moon Daughter from 1996. On this
version she proved that she can continue to make otherwise generic songs into
her own minor masterpieces. Mr. Cowherd
was particularly soulful on this one and Mr. Plaxico was rock steady
throughout. She left the stage as Mr.
Maret and the band took the song out.
After a standing ovation Ms.
Wilson returned to the stage and appropriately ended the set with a blues. Mr.
Ross , who never left the stage-tuning his guitar throughout the applause, led off with his pungent guitar lines that slowly but surely develop
into a four bar blues line. The band builds this slow-cooker in stages as each
instrument enters adding more fuel to this simmering fire. Ms. Wilson’s smoky
alto is center stage as she walks us through the Son House lyrics of “Death
House.” Ms. Wilson first did this song
on her New Moon Daughter Album and it
is the authentic pathos of her singing on this song that firmly establishes her
as a true blues artist of major import. On this evening however, after a few
verses of Ms. Wilson’s heart wrenching
vocals, (which we could have used more of), the band took the song as a vehicle for
extended improvisation by Mr. Maret. Despite
the crowd’s applause during Mr. Maret’s endless solo, as a harmonica player myself,
I am particularly sensitive to the effectiveness of a harp in music and
especially within the blues idiom. For me, Mr. Maret’s indulgence detracted from
the performance. I would have preferred fewer choruses with a bending diatonic
harp for this song in keeping with the blues tradition, but that is just a
personal preference. More importantly, as musical director, Mr. Maret, no
matter how talented a player, must realize and that using the harmonica sparingly
is the most prudent course. On this point perhaps Mr. Ross, whose judicious use
of space on his guitar is exemplary, could be his guide. Ms. Wilson’s voice is
the feature here and she did not disappoint, although it would have been nice to hear more of her and a little less of her band. Despite a generally pleasing performance,
it was a bit disconcerting that to me that at times it seemed as if the band was featured more than the headliner.
The Performing Arts Center
at Purchase College has a fabulously eclectic season planned for this year. Its
schedule can be found at here.
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