Post Description

Cassandra Wilson (Jackson Mississippi, 1955) is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer. She is described as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country, and folk music into her work. 
In 1981, she moved to New Orleans for a position as assistant public affairs director for the local television station, WDSU. She did not stay long. Working with mentors who included elder statesmen Earl Turbinton, Alvin Batiste, and Ellis Marsalis, Wilson found encouragement to seriously pursue jazz performance and moved to New York City the following year.

In New York, Wilson's focus turned towards improvisation. Heavily influenced by singers Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter, she fine-tuned her vocal phrasing and scat while studying ear training with trombonist Grachan Moncur, III. Frequenting jam sessions under the tutelage of pianist Sadik Hakim she met alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, who encouraged her to look beyond the standard jazz repertoire in favor of developing original material. She would become the vocalist and one of the founding members of the M-Base collective, a stylistic outgrowth of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and Black Artists Group (BAG) that re-imagined the grooves of funk and soul within the context of traditional and avant-garde jazz. Although her voice was not an obvious choice for M-Base's complex textures or harmonically elaborated melodies, Wilson wove herself into the fabric of these settings with wordless improv and lyrics. 
At the same time, Wilson toured with avant-garde trio New Air featuring alto saxophonist Henry Threadgill and recorded Air Show No. 1 (1987) in Italy. 

She released her first solo recording leader Point of View in 1986. Like the majority of her JMT albums that followed, originals by Wilson in keeping with M-Base dominated these sessions; she would also record a few standards. Her throaty contralto gradually emerges over the course of these recordings, making its way to the foreground. She developed a remarkable ability to stretch and bend pitches, elongate syllables, manipulate tone and timbre from dusky to hollow.

Her signing with Blue Note Records in 1993 marked a crucial turning point in her career and major breakthrough to audiences beyond jazz with albums selling in the hundreds of thousands of copies.

Beginning with Blue Light 'Til Dawn (1993) her repertoire moved towards a broad synthesis of blues, pop, jazz, world music, and country. Not only did Wilson effectively reconnect vocal jazz with its blues roots, she was arguably the first to convincingly fashion post–British Invasion pop into jazz, trailblazing a path that many have since followed. Furthermore, producer Craig Street drew from pop production techniques to create a rich ambient environment around her voice, magnifying it and giving sonic depth to sparse but incredibly vivid arrangements.

Wilson has won two Grammy Awards. 

01 - Cassandra Wilson - Don't look back.mp3
02 - Cassandra Wilson - Soul Melange.mp3
03 - Cassandra Wilson - 'Round Midnight.mp3
04 - Cassandra Wilson - My Corner Of The Sky.mp3
05 - Cassandra Wilson - Desperate Move.mp3
06 - Cassandra Wilson - Body And Soul.mp3
07 - Cassandra Wilson - Rock This Calling.mp3

(Ik post meestal alleen materiaal dat nog niet eerder op Spotnet verschenen is. Vijftien van Wilsons overige albums zijn 532/560 dagen geleden al door Albertino gepost)