Cassandra Wilson, who passed away a few days ago aged 70, forged her career in the jazz world but carved a much wider musical swathe. Although her instrument was her beautiful contralto voice, she was an accomplished guitarist and pianist too, who thought and worked in musical, rather than vocal terms. She recorded jazz standards, show tunes, a host of covers of pop songs and original compositions, and was deeply influenced by the blues tradition of her Mississippi homeland.
While Wilson was comfortable singing among jazz players, she was equally at ease exploring varied musical forms as a mechanism to connect people to each other and to music. Her vocal range was scarcely shown because she barely used it, keeping most vocal performances evenly modulated, allowing the surrounding instrumentation to do a whole lot of colouring and embellishment of the songs she chose. Every recording would be about the whole rather than her performance.
I was a fan of a range from her repertoire. Some pop covers were virtually unrecognisable from the originals. She would slow down, speed up, change key and re-interpret to try to shift something from that which already existed. In the case of original compositions, Wilson chose a lighter framework, which would find wider commercial success.
Covering a blues classic: ‘Death Letter’
I’ve been listening to some of her albums since Wednesday, including the Grammy-winning, mid-1990s New Moon Daughter. From it, today’s pick is an interpretation of bluesman Son House’s resonator and slide-guitar classic, Death Letter Blues – recorded by Wilson and others as Death Letter – a sad song about receiving a letter carrying the news of the death of a lover. Gentle acoustic and percussion beginnings and the quietest keyboard wash are followed by layered reverb guitar, before Wilson reveals a somewhat different vocal performance.
Her usually perfect diction makes way for some slurred lyrics, perhaps to emulate the slide of the original. The electric guitar accents add atmosphere, while touches of adornment which characterise so many of her songs are here too, this time from banjo and Jew’s harp.
Enjoy this invitation to explore Cassandra Wilson and wishing you a good weekend.
Listen to Death Letter on Spotify here.
And on Apple Music here.
I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.