Loverly

by

Cassandra Wilson

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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!

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)