CASSANDRA WILSON She Listens and Lets the Songs Speak to Her—Then She Makes Them Her Own
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DECEMBER 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM SPOTLIGHT terling s Will Will CASSANDRA WILSON She listens and lets the songs speak to her—then she makes them her own Cassandra Wilson has a sixth and country. (Silver Pony kicks off with the sense when it comes to finding songs. t“ hey sigmund romberg/oscar hammerstein ii will tell me if they are for me,” she says. “a pop standard “lover, Come Back to Me,” song tells me that it belongs to me. it has a tune she learned from her mother.) While to resonate and have some connection to she is typically categorized as a jazz singer, who i am, who i’ve grown up to be, who i Wilson finds such labels limiting. “You hear was and will be and who i want to be.” the all kinds of music, so why do you have to stay veteran singer’s latest album, Silver Pony, inside the confines of one type?” she says. i“ includes several such songs, coming from like to say that jazz is a discipline. it’s a way DECEMBER 2010 sources as disparate as stevie Wonder, of life. it’s something that you grow into. it’s M MUSIC & MUSICIANS Brazilian composer luiz Bonfá and blues not just confined to the music.” great Charley Patton—as well as Wilson’s since the beginning of her recording MAGAZINE own compositions. career in the mid-’80s, Wilson has made a Wilson and co-producer John Fischbach point of exploring numerous avenues, from elected to use recordings from both the adventurous funk to standards. the 2009 studio and the stage for Silver Pony. “it’s compilation Closer to You: The Pop Side taking two different creative circumstances rounded up her various covers of rock tunes, and trying to blend them together,” she including songs by the Monkees, neil Young says. “the stage is really dynamic and it and U2, while 1999’s Traveling Miles was has so many elements in it that you don’t a tribute to Miles davis. Wilson is satisfied have in studio recordings. But the studio to perform any song that calls out to her. recordings are great because they allow “it’s really great when, as an artist, you can you to be very introspective. so i thought see the development of a piece and see it it would be interesting to weld those two move from one place to the next, after the spaces together.” musicians have had time to really absorb the Wilson was exposed to a variety song,” she says. “it’s about chemistry. the of genres growing up in Jackson, Miss., music has to happen in the moment.” including classical music, jazz, r&B, blues –Jeff Tamarkin 20 M mag 8.indd 20 12/30/10 6:15:07 PM.