Blue Skies
Cassandra Wilson has convincingly argued that all American popular music displays one fundamental aspect of the jazz tradition: a delight in taking songs--from the simplest to most profound--and recombining them into idiosyncratic form. That includes standards such as those she lolls into on this 1988 release--"Polka Dots and Moonbeams," "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "My One and Only Love," and others. Underpinning these performances is an intriguing world-weariness, often of slightly sad (dare one say, postcoital) drowsiness. Wilson's sultry contralto augments that bold inflection, which impresses from the opening moments of the well-worn, usually more flirtatious "Shall We Dance." The straight-up support of Mulgrew Miller (piano), Lonnie Plaxico (bass), and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) provides Wilson an unobtrusive foundation.--Peter Monaghan