Cassandra Wilson - Thunderbird (2006)

Artist...............: Cassandra Wilson
Album................: Thunderbird
Genre................: Jazz
Source...............: Cd
Year.................: 2006
Ripper...............: Exact Audio Copy
Codec................: FLAC
Information..........: TntVillage
Covers...............: Front
Total Size...........: 326 Mb


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Rewiev
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Cassandra Wilson's swinging for her own creative fences this time. The sultry, gentle, acoustic guitars on

her last five recordings have been largely jettisoned for a more keyboard-and percussion -friendly approach

-- which includes lots of programming and loops. To that end, she's enlisted flavor-of-the-year producer

T-Bone Burnett and keyboardist Keith Ciancia. This pair hired a stellar group of players that include

drummer Jim Keltner, bassist Reginald Veal (a near-constant here), guitarists Colin Linden and Marc Ribot,

and programming whiz Mike Elizondo. Mike Piersante plays "keypercussion" (read: drum loops), Jay Bellerose

and Bill Maxwell also contribute kit work. Keb Mo' guests on a track. Ever since signing to Blue Note,

Wilson's walked a razor-wire between blues, pop, and jazz, but her recordings have always been intimate

affairs whether she was singing songs by Robert Johnson or Van Morrison. While she does preserve a degree

of that intimacy here, some of it has fallen by the wayside in favor of the near-constant presence of drum

loops, with subtle samples dropped in giving the entire proceeding a slightly more urban feel. A startling

example is "Go to Mexico," where a percussion loop and the vocal chant from the Wild Tchapitoulas "Hey

Pocky A-Way," are directly sampled with new words and instrumentation layered over the top -- including

Veal copying the bassline. In addition, Wilson sings in a voice not really heard from her before.

Intertwined with her trademark, smoky contralto (Wilson has been deeply influenced by Abbey Lincoln and

Betty Carter but has become a true song stylist of her own), is a falsetto in the verse that feels like a

deliberate attempt at singing "straight" modern pop. The thin, compressed production with her vocal mixed

so high above the largely keyboard-driven instrumentation feels forced, at odds with the tune, and nearly

sterile. Thankfully, it's the exception rather than the rule on Thunderbird. The atmospheric keyboard line

that introduces her read of Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers' "Closer to You," gives way to Keltner's softly

insistent trip-hop shuffle, Veal's minimal bassline, and Ciancia's piano, keyboards, and loops are the

working elements here. Wilson's guitar drifts in under her aching, seductive vocal on the refrain as Veal

subtly anchors her. Wilson's read of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Easy Rider" starts out that way -- with

Linden and Ribot playing snaky and skeletal for the first two verses. It roars to life about two-and-half-

minutes in, fully electric, dirty, nasty, and drenched in slow, deep swamp blues. Keltner's playing is

utterly transfixing here. At a touch over seven minutes, its entrancing dynamics provide a virtual journey

though the blues both past and future. The slippery drum loops re-enter on the band-written original "It

Would Be So Easy," and here, club music touches pop touches the roots of the blues -- the former two happen

because of the instrumentation, the latter is due to Wilson's instrument, which embodies them all and

creates a new and ghostly meld. "Red River Valley" is the album's centerpiece. Accompanied only by Linden'

electric slide guitar, it is full of the desolation of the tune's intent, but framed in the context of the

Delta. It's one of two guitar/vocal duets here; the other one, the ballad "Lost," is more late-night Julie

London than Billie Holiday. Willie Dixon's "I Want to Be Loved" is wonderful update of the blues, and

"Poet" may not hit the Urban Top Ten chart, but it should; it's wondrously soulful, sexy, and glossy. While

Wilson has certainly not lost any of her singular talent for interpreting the Chicago blues through the

lens of jazz and pop , she has expanded her palette once more by creating an entirely new bag from which we

might hear pop, through the age-old hypnotic, sensual, incantory veil of the blues.


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Tracklist
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01. Go To Mexico
02. Closer To You
03. Easy Rider
04. It Would Be So Easy
05. Red River Valley
06. Poet
07. I Want To Be Loved
08. Lost
09. Strike A Match
10. Tarot