Music

All that jazz, and then some

Cassandra Wilson isn't limited by labels. Her soulful singing shows the influence of Billie Holiday and (really!) Glen Campbell.

By John Berlau

Cassandra Wilson packs the cachet of a critic's darling. Her albums emerge as top sellers from the day they hit stores. With each release, she offers an homage to the great ones: Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and ... the Monkees?

Hard as it may be to believe, Wilson's husky, seductive voice turns the '60s pop hit "Last Train to Clarksville" into a tender, bluesy love song. "I always loved the lyrics, the story," Wilson, 46, said in a recent interview. "That's what I heard when I first heard the Monkees' version. And that melody really lent itself to variation harmonically."

There's no doubt Wilson is on a roll: She's one of the headliners for the prestigious JVC Jazz Festival in New York Tuesday. Her latest release, "Belly of the Sun", is getting raves, with Wilson interpreting songs from Bob Dylan, James Taylor and blues legend Robert Johnson, as well as many self-penned tunes. Her style is her own; she emphasizes acoustic and electric guitars, not traditional jazz instruments such as brass. As a result, some critics question whether she's a performer of jazz or "bluesy folk music," as critic Stanley Crouch puts it.

But most jazz fans don't seem to mind. She regularly finishes near the top of the annual readers' poll of jazz magazine "Down Beat" and was featured in Ken Burns' PBS series "Jazz" as one of the most promising artists of her generation. She also was featured in Bravo's "Musicians" series. Perhaps most impressive: Last year, "Time" named her "America's best singer" -- in any genre.

Crouch, who wrote the accompanying essay for Time, tells USA WEEKEND that Wilson uses her talents as a jazz singer on any type of music she performs: "Because she's a jazz musician, she brings another thing to it that the average person singing that material wouldn't be dealing with. She always has the feeling of jazz in what she's singing."

Although Crouch says Wilson does not have as broad a vocal range as jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan, she makes up for it by knowing how to swing, improvise and tell a story. "She doesn't have a whole heap of voice, but she's like those giants like Billie Holiday and Abbey Lincoln," Crouch says. "She has actual soul. This is not the clip-on, store-bought kind. This the kind you have to go to secret places to get."

That means she can apply her jazzy artistic vision to any genre. Who says a jazz star can't be a little bit country? These days, she's breathing new life into "Wichita Lineman", a Jimmy Webb song made famous in 1968 by country-pop singer Glen Campbell. Wilson counts Campbell as one of the many diverse artists who influenced her when she was growing up in Jackson, Miss. "'Wichita Lineman' is a song I've loved for a long time," she says. "I used to watch [Campbell's TV show]; I loved his guitarist." Asked about her musical influences, Wilson warns, "It's a long list," then proceeds to mention everyone from jazz singers Lincoln and Nina Simone to folk singer Joni Mitchell to the "Godfather of Soul," James Brown.

Still, Wilson considers herself a jazz artist -- first and last -- and says jazz artists always have incorporated the popular music of their day. "It's always been in the tradition of jazz vocalists to take music from the popular repertoire," she says. "Billie Holiday took popular music from her day. We don't see that now. We look back at it, and we recognize these are standards. But they've become standards. They certainly weren't standards when she was doing them, because they were just being written."

To determine the best way to interpret others' songs, Wilson gets down to the bare essentials by strumming the tune on her acoustic guitar. "I try to hear it through the guitar first, fine-tuning and experimenting, and then just build a house -- a musical house for a song to live in," she says. "It's

a matter of experimenting with the melody, creating a harmony, creating a mood and creating a tempo. In a sense you're building a home, or a vessel, for that emotion, lyrical phrase or story."

Wilson's goal is to reach "everyone who has an ear." Although she doesn't perform feel-good music, she does want her listeners to feel joy after they've heard her sing. "Joy encompasses more than just feeling good; it's understanding the melancholy that we sometimes have," Wilson says. "I'd like the people to feel some connection to a memory or an experience, something that produces a strong visceral reaction to the music. I hope the music is something that gives them a sense of timelessness, and I also want it to be healing."

When Wilson is away from the studio and stage, she likes to collect a wide range of African and Caribbean art. She's also a computer buff, remaining up to date on the latest programs and composing many of her songs with software programs. Wilson, who lives in New York City, frequently listens to music with her 13-year-old son, Jeris. But rap, not jazz, usually is booming out of the speakers. It should come as no surprise that a jazz artist who taps into many genres has discovered some connection there as well.

"Jeris loves hip-hop," Wilson says. "To me, the lyrics are a little too mundane. But I like what many of the rap artists do in terms of experimentation."