Eva Cassidy - Live at Blues Alley
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CD Details
Artist: Eva CassidyEdition: Music CD
Format: Live, Original recording reissued
CD Release Date: 1998-07-28
Music Label: Blix Street
Soundtracks:
- Cheek To Cheek
- Stormy Monday
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Fine And Mellow
- People Get Ready
- Blue Skies
- Tall Trees In Georgia
- Fields Of Gold
- Autumn Leaves
- Honeysuckle Rose
- Take Me To The River
- What A Wonderful World
- Oh, Had I A Golden Thread
Music reviews of Live at Blues Alley
Music Review: A Budding Talent's Legacy
Rating: 5 Stars
Ignore the fact that this music is from an artist who passed away months after it was recorded. Eva Cassidy needs no push from her passing due to melanoma to achieve recognition; her powerful voice speaks for itself. Eva Cassidy is one of those individuals whose talent was recognized all too late in their life, but the four million and counting recordings sold since her death may give you an inkling of what you may have missed.
This live set begins with the jazzy "Cheek to Cheek." Eva's notes from low to higher than most mortals can reach are clear and lovely. After a brief fadeout, Eva shows her sultry and sensuous side on "Stormy Monday." This song is performed purely as blues, and Eva's voice can directly reach your heart as she belts out this tune as though the burden of two lifetimes was behind her.
The next song is a wonderful interpretation of Paul Simon's "Bridge over Troubled Water." I always enjoyed Simon and Garfunkel's interpretation of this song, but this one takes their interpretation to another level altogether. Simon and Garfunkel fans should find this interpretation enjoyable and haunting.
"Fine and Mellow" picks up the pace substantially, and allows Eva to enjoy herself as much as her audience. "People Get Ready" is bluesy, slowing down the pace again. The pace picks up again with the lovely jazz song "Blue Skies."
"Tall Trees in Georgia" may bring a tear to your eye as Eva sings with her soul. This lovely folk song is centered on Eva's voice with minimal instrumental accompaniment, and the result must be heard. Another wonderful song is Eva's interpretation of the Sting's song "Fields of Gold." Eva's singing changes this pop song to a heart-rending folk song. The gorgeous song "Autumn Leaves" maintains the soulful style and slow pace. I can see all these songs played while you and your sweetie are enjoying an evening in front of a warm fireplace.
After the three previous songs the pace needed increased, and Eva does so with "Honeysuckle Rose." This song really moves as the song progresses, and as the end nears is one of the fastest songs on this CD. "Take Me to the River" allows Eva to show a little country flair and keeps the fast pace of the previous song.
On the classic "What a Wonderful World" Eva is amazingly comfortable with her material. I suspect that Louis Armstrong would have been pleased to perform a duet with Eva, and the two would have enjoyed the experience immensely.
This CD finishes with the studio recorded song "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread." This spiritual song shows yet another facet of Eva's amazing talent.
Eva was first and foremost a singer, and an excellent one at that. She reminds me a lot of singers such as Gordon Lightfoot and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. These singers have in common a comfortable manner with their audiences and remind me of bards of days of old. The handful of people who got to see Eva playing this music was able to experience a unique talent that the rest of us can only know through her recordings.
If you like singers such as Diana Krall, Roberta Flack, and Billie Holiday, I suspect you are going to love Eva Cassidy.
Description of Live at Blues Alley
Recorded live at Blues Alley, Washington, D.C., Jan. 2, 1996, where the late folk singer/songwriter had a loyal following. 13 tracks, including four that appeared on her breakthrough 1998 album, 'Songbird'. Blix Street.When Eva Cassidy is swinging her way through "Cheek to Cheek" and getting down and bluesy on "Stormy Monday" on this live set from 1996, it's nigh impossible not to get swept up in her voice's vast, barreling force. Her full range, though, becomes most obvious--and soul-shaking--on the slower side, as with Paul Simon's "Bridge over Troubled Water," Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Tall Trees in Georgia," and "What a Wonderful World." On these latter tunes, Cassidy's mix of aching clarity and rich warmth has a melting quality, speaking through the body to some evanescent presence that she seems to know all too well. She improbably makes Sting's "Fields of Gold" an emotional powerhouse just as easily as she makes Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow" an offhand declaration of feeling equal to nearly anything in the jazz vocal canon. In doing so she earns her place among the great singers--artists who could take any song and stamp it indelibly as their own. What Eva Cassidy had in her short life was an unbelievably perfect voice and a musical soul that grasped gospel, folk, blues, jazz, and all points in between as if they were mere stops on a single train ride. Alas, her ride ended in 1996, tragically early. --Andrew Bartlett
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