Beyond the jazz ghetto

James Marcus reviews Cassandra Wilson's album "New Moon Daughter".

By James Marcus

Sep 1, 1996 | Cassandra Wilson arrived in New York from New Orleans in 1982 and promptly made a name for herself as the jazz vocalist to watch. At first, Wilson was something of a stylistic chameleon. On a release like "Blue Skies" (JMT), she applied her dark-toned contralto to a set of standards, inspiring comparisons to Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln. More often, though, she was associated with M-BASE -- the Brooklyn collective whose thumping fusion of jazz and funk tended to overwhelm Wilson's voice. The singer steered back and forth between these two camps throughout the 1980s, attempting to satisfy both and often satisfying neither. Her talent was never in question -- indeed, her singing grew steadily more agile and distinctive -- but Wilson seemed unsure of what to do with it. In 1993, however, she came up with an answer, teaming with producer Craig Street to record "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" (Blue Note). With its pared-down, sometimes spooky arrangements, the disk sounded nothing like a traditional jazz outing, nor did it suggest the dance-floor agenda of Wilson's M-BASE colleagues. The sound was spare and low-tech -- mostly acoustic guitar, violin, bass, and percussion, with occasional dabs of cornet or pedal steel -- and calculated to spotlight the singer's sensuous, swooping delivery.