Cassandra Wilson surprises everyone with her
latest release Cassandra Wilson - Silver Pony
where she includes a selection of live tracks, something she has not done since
1991, and adds in special guests Ravi Coltrane and John
Legend on a release that crosses genres with some Jazz, Blues, and
Delta Blues.
Cassandra
Wilson - Silver Pony
Cassandra Wilson - Silver Pony: Lover Come Back to
Me; Went Down to St. James Infirmary; A Night in Seville; Beneath a Silver
Moon; Saddle Up My Pony; If It's Magic; Forty Days and Forty Nights; Silver
Pony; A Day In the Life of a Fool; Blackbird; Watch the Sunrise
Personnel: Cassandra Wilson: Vocals (Tracks 1, 2,
4-7, 9-11), Synthesizer (Track 4), Bass Drum (Track 11); Marvin Sewell:
Electric Guitar (Tracks 1-5, 7-10), Acoustic Guitar (Track 6); Reginald Veal:
Acoustic Bass (Tracks 1, 2, 5, 7-9), Electric Bass (Tracks 4, 6, 10); Herlin
Riley: Drums (Tracks 1-5, 7-10); Jonathan Batiste: Piano (Tracks 1, 2, 4-10),
Fender Rhodes (Track 3); Lekan Babalola: Percussion (Tracks 2-4, 7-10); Ravi
Coltrane: Tenor Saxophone (Track 4); Helen Gillet: Cello, Vielle (Track 11);
John Legend: Vocals (Track 11), Piano (Track 11); Luke Laird: Acoustic Rhythm
Guitar (Track 11); Brandon Ross: Acoustic Guitar (Track 11)
Cassandra Wilson - Silver Pony was produced by Cassandra
Wilson and John Fischbach, and released on the Blue
Note Records label. Cassandra Wilson, the 2008 Grammy® winner
for Loverly, surprises everyone with
a fresh look at Jazz, Blues, Delta Blues, and more on her latest release Silver
Pony. Looking to follow-up the award-winning release Loverly, she
includes a selection of live tracks that she blends with tracks from the studio
using musicians from her past, and present,
along with special guests Ravi Coltrane and
John Legend; the release is a little of this, a little of that, and a whole lot
of Cassandra.
The album leads off with the live cut Lover Come Back,
which is the first live track from Cassandra since 1991, a true treasure. A
swing beat that has the band jumping during that special evening in Granada, Spain
when it was recorded; the song is brash, sexy, and powerful, just like
Cassandra Wilson. The track Went Down to St. James Infirmary is another
live track recorded from the Granada, Spain gig and this is sultry Cassandra
against a jazz improvisational beat that takes a life of its own, a testament
to the power of live recordings.
The track A Night in Seville is an instrumental track
from another remarkable evening in Spain. The song is pure improvisation
as the band lets the live surrounding dictate. Moving back into the studio,
Cassandra wrote the track Beneath a Silver Moon, which was inspired from
an instrumental segment from the Spain gigs. As she listened to the
song, the lyrics started to evolve in her mind and the result was Beneath a
Silver Moon; on the release she seamlessly transitions from the live A
Night in Seville to Beneath a Silver Moon and there is nothing lost
from the magic of the live segment to the studio complement.
Another gem from the live session is the Delta Blues track Saddle
Up My Pony, written by Charlie Patton, where Cassandra shows her
musicianship and love of all things music with stellar blues vocals. The track If
It's Magic has a seductive melody that Cassandra matches with her sultry
vocals and the resultant song will tug at your heartstrings.
The arrangement of Forty Days and Forty Nights,
written by Muddy Waters, adds some punch to the original sound that punctuates
Cassandra's vocals as she sings "Forty days and forty nights since my baby
broke my heart." The title track Silver Pony is a short instrumental
that draws its inspiration from the track Caravan that was a recorded
during an engagement in Seville,
Spain.
The live version of the classic A Day in the Life of a
Fool has a bossa-nova beat and Cassandra is in complete control of the
vocals as she saunters her way through the song. The classic Blackbird
takes on a new persona as the band jazzes up the arrangement and Cassandra
moves through the vocals switching between reading the lyrics to offering her
jazzy rendition. The release closes with the track Watch the Sunrise
that has Cassandra doing a duet with John Legend who wrote the song; a fitting
closure to a release that is a little of this, a little of that, and pure
Cassandra.
Websites where you can procure Cassandra Wilson - Silver
Pony are Blue
Note Records, Walmart,
Amazon,
Target,
EBay,
and CD
Universe.
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