Daily Planet

On her new self-produced CD of jazz standards, Loverly, Cassandra Wilson, the singer who has been merging folk and rock sensibilities with jazz, is obviously having a great time with a fine crew of musicians.

Recorded in a rented house in her Jackson, Mississippi birthplace, the crew includes genre-defying pianist Jason Moran, drummer Herlin Riley, Yoruba percussionist Lekan Babalola and Cassandra’s longtime band members, guitarist Marvin Sewell and bassist Lonnie Plaxico. The atmosphere is relaxed and the musicians are given a lot of space. Sometimes the arrangements take fairly standard approaches and other times they’re quite creative, as in Cassandra’s duet with Marvin on Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, with bassist Reginald Veal on The Very Thought of You or the unusual treatment of ’Til There Was You. In a nod to Cassandra’s past eclecticism, there’s a blues - Dust My Broom and the folk-associated St. James Infirmary. Her voice is smoky and commanding throughout.

Playlist

1421
Innuendo Out The Other
Philip DeGruy
Degruy-Gruy Music
NYC 6013 2 (US Import)
Philip DeGruy, Innuendo Out The Other
15 seconds (excerpt)
(solo 17-string elec guitar, fingerstyle; v quirky, virtuosic & humorous, more or less a bent-boogie)

1423
CD Cut 6 - 'Til There Was You'
Meredith Wilson
Meredith Wilson Music admin by Frank Music Corp ASCAP
Blue Note Records 50999 5 07699 2 6 (Through EMI)
Cassandra Wilson - 'Loverly'
6:32
(Funky rhythm electric guitar groove gives surprise as it tuns into familiar, airy-melodied song from the Sound of Music featuring the guitar of Marvin Sewell)

1431
CD Cut 11 - 'The Very Thought of You'
Ray Noble
Range Road Music Inc,/Terrauq Music, Inc. ASCAP
Blue Note Records 50999 5 07699
Cassandra Wilson - 'Loverly'
4:44
(Cassandra's sensual deep voice in duet with Reginald Veal's walking double bass - very live - you can hear Cassandra moving around during his solo and returning to sing from far away from the microphone)

Segue

1435
CD Cut 7, 'The Prophet Of Doom'
Words By Ishmael Reed. Music By David Murray
Justin Time Music Pub/ Passport Songs Music
Justin Time JUST 204-2
( In Australia, through The Planet Company/ MGM
email: info@theplanetcompany.com
website: www.theplanetcompany.com
worldwide: www.justin-time.com )
David Murray - 'Sacred Ground'
11: 19
( Ishmael Reed's custom-written, clever lyric, delivered as a wryly-sultry blues by singer Cassandra Wilson. Draws parallels between the ancient Greek Cassandra and the more recent/current experience of black American women. Murray is the tenor saxophonist, with pianist Lafayette Gilchrist, double bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Andrew Cyrille.)

A revealing, interview-based article about this album-cum-project is here:
www.eastbayexpress.com/2007-07-11/music/sacred-squeals

YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT POET/NOVELIST/ACTIVIST ISHMAEL REED?

This is a good place to start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_Reed

Read the Oxford Companion to American Literature entry on him, here: www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/reed/about.htm )

1448
CD Cut 7 - 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most'
F Landesman/T Wolf
Wolfland, admin by Fricout Music Company ASCAP
Blue Note Records 50999 5 07699 2 6 (Through EMI)
Cassandra Wilson - 'Loverly'
4:56
(Cassandra sings 'modern' jazz standard, accompanied only by Marvin Sewell's chorused acoustic guitar)

Segue

1453
CD Cut 6 - 'Georgia'
H Carmichael/S Gorell
Peer Music Intl Ltd. BMI
Blue Note Records 509999 5 04454 2 4 (Through EMI)
Willie Nelson/Wynton Marsalis - 'Two Men With the Blues'
Out by 4:40
(Willie sings, Wynton solos brilliantly on plunger mute trumpet as does Dan Nimmer on bluesy piano, with some interesting rhythmic kicks that Willie exclaims over)

1458
CD Cut 7 - 'Soïna Si Joc de Marian'
Marinel Miu, arr by Les Yeux Noirs
Zamora Editions
Recall 052, (in Australia through Shock: www.shock.com.au, internationally: www.recallgroup.com )
Les Yeux Noirs - 'Tchorba'
One minute excerpt
(Accelerating instrumental romp featuring Marinel Miu's cimbalom)

LES YEUX NOIR AUSTRALIAN TOUR ALERT:

25, 26, 27 July Brisbane,
The Spiegeltent, Queens Park

29 July Sydney
The Factory Theatre, Victoria Road, Enmore

31 July
Her Majesty's Theatre
Adelaide

Presenter

Lucky Oceans

Producer

Lucky Oceans