Yes, it’s another tribute to Billie Holiday. I guess it’s due to the centennial of her birth, so expect more. Cassandra Wilson makes the wise choice of keeping the sound in her comfort zone, yet still adding a couple extra dashes and surprises. T-Bone Burnett/g and Nick Zinner/g (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), strings from Van Dyke Parks and The Bad Seeds’ rhythm section (Thomas Wydler/dr and Martyn P. Casey) team up with long termers Jon Cowherd/p and Kevin Breit/g, making the sounds both similar yet experimental.
Wilson’s voice is in vintage rural Georgia form, wonderfully expressive on the reflective waltz take of “These Foolish Things” and emotive along with Wydler’s brushes during “All of Me.” The rumbling “Don’t Explain” and ”Billies Blues” sound like what you might expect from Ms. Wilson, but then she does a 70s ish Elvis pop with strings on a stagy “You Go To My Head.” A honky-tonkin’ “Good Morning Heartache” makes you feel like its late night at a juke joint, while eerie effects on “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Crazy He Calls Me” create shadowy moods. The album ends with a dreamy and plaintiff dedication to Holiday’s most famous teammate Lester Young on “Last Song” with Wilson wisely keeping away from the tenor sax throughout the album, picking the more moody bass clarinet on a few pieces judiciously. Wilson is still able to create a puree’ from any song that is delectable.
Legacy Records