Word: cassandra
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...light up Symphony Hall again this year. They performed last March for the first time in the Boston area and were back before Thanksgiving with more steel drum action. Opening the concert was Ken "Professor" Philmore, who has performed with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Tito Puente and Cassandra Wilson in the past. Philmore's pan solos got the crowd in the mood, but his band struggled to keep up with him. Philmore is a pan master and has been playing steel drums since he was four years old, beginning his professional career at fifteen with the Hatters Steel Orchestra...
Jazz musicians are also beginning to grapple with the wealth of potential standards written after 1960, an off-and-on trend renewed in earnest a few years ago when vocalist Cassandra Wilson turned the Monkees' Last Train to Clarksville into a torchy, caramelized ballad nearly worthy of Billie Holiday. Herbie Hancock followed with The New Standard, an entire album of rock-era tunes in which he improvised on changes derived from the Beatles, Sade and Kurt Cobain, among others. Joshua Redman's forthcoming Timeless Tales (for Changing Times) (Warner Bros.) covers similar ground, with songs by Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder...
...wish Frank Sinatra influenced more singers today," says Cassandra Wilson, who is widely considered to be the best jazz vocalist of the '90s. "He comes from a time when it was about the phrasing of a piece, the emotional content of a piece. He descended from Billie Holiday and singers who placed more emphasis on the lyrical content of a song. He was very disciplined, and I don't think modern singers are as disciplined anymore...
...word "bubblegum" has stuck to Mariah for much of her career. In particular, the last few months of Lilith worship have opened up bounteous opportunities for ridiculing her brand of breezy pop. Sure, she will never touch a Joan Osborne or a Cassandra Wilson for innovation or craftsmanship, but she is just as capable in her element as Jewel or Sarah "I-will-remember-you-will-you-remember-me?" McLachlan are in theirs. Back off, you coffee-shop snobs...
...tried out the concept of an all-female tour on four test dates last year, expanding the idea this summer. "There wasn't necessarily a theme we were looking for, but we all wanted a diverse show," she says. "So [this year] we made sure to get people like Cassandra Wilson, who is totally doing her own thing with jazz and folk...