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| Loverly | 
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| Artist: Cassandra Wilson
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $7.49
You Save: $11.49 (61%)
New (45) Used (10) from $7.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 703
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
EAN: 5099950769926
ASIN: B0016NCTH2
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New - Factory Sealed - Shipped from Florida via USPS First class mail. We ONLY sell what we have in stock. NO back orders here.Import Edition
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| Tracks:
| • | Lover Come Back To Me | | • | Black Orpheus | | • | Wouldn't It Be Loverly | | • | Gone With the Wind | | • | Caravan | | • | 'til There Was You | | • | Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most | | • | Arere | | • | St. James Infirmary | | • | Dust My Broom | | • | The Very Thought of You | | • | A Sleepin' Bee |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
Long considered one of the finest singers in the jazz world, Cassandra Wilson's new album is a tour de force of emotion, technique, interpretation and style as she brings her considerable powers to this collection of classic songs. Once again she has gathered a band of shining talent, featuring the brilliant Jason Moran on Piano with guitarist Marvin Sewell and Lonnie Plaxico on bass - a band that is so good together that Cassandra was happy to sit in the producer's chair and let the songs speak for themselves. Featuring incredible interpretations of the classics like Black Orpheus, Caravan, and The Very Thought of You, Cassandra is one of the few singers that can genuinely re-invent a song that we all think we know, such as Wouldn't It Be Loverly and turn it breathe new emotional life into it. However, the standout track has to be the stunning funky, soulful, brooding St. James Infirmary which has become a staple of her live set
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
She stamps her distinctive personality on familiar songs. June 12, 2008
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
Back in the Eighties, the American singer Cassandra Wilson was a founder of the M-Base movement which mixed African culture with funk and avant-garde jazz.
For more than a decade, however, she's achieved commercial and critical success by re-imagining unexpected material as bluesy jazz.
Her new album is ostensibly a straightforward collection of standards, even tackling "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" from the musical "My Fair Lady" (My Fair Lady (1956 Original Broadway Cast)), but it also embraces gentle experimentation grounded in the percussion of African drum expert Lekan Babalola.
Thus Dixieland classic "St James Infirmary" becomes a rolling percussive groove and the whole album thrives on jamming between piano and rhythm section.
Certainly easy on the ear, "Loverly" also nudges subtly and playfully at smooth jazz listeners' expectations.
The title just about sums this up, really. It's a cracking album of top-drawer singing, and might just be the best album Wilson has recorded since her debut 15 years ago.
It finds her exploring the standards repertoire with relish and invention, helped by her old friends: guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassists Reggie Veal and Lonnie Plaxico, drummer Herlin Riley, and labelmate and pianist Jason Moran.
Cassandra Wilson's voice has matured into a wonderfully expressive instrument, full of smoky intensity and her way with a lyric is beguiling.
She finds new things to say on old songs like "Gone With the Wind" and the lovely "Black Orpheus".
Cassandra gets into funky form on "St James' Infirmary" and a raunchy "Dust My Broom".
Rush out and buy it.
You will love it!
 Good CD, not her best, probably June 16, 2008
14 out of 36 found this review helpful
This CD seems to be recorded 'live' in the studio. You can hear Wilson directing the band whilst singing in certain places. Also, her while other musicians are soloing - you can hear her jovial self courting them with little phrases as they jam - thru open mics during the recording. Hence the production sounds a bit amateur-ish. Perhaps that is precisely what Wilson is going for. The song choices are certainly agreeable.
I saw this band live just after they recorded this album in Florida and the tunes sounded a bit more refined then. Overall an enjoyable ensemble of musicians and tunes. I still prefer the Thunderbird album, personally. Maybe my hopes were too high...
Many fine moments, some funky grooves. August 13, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Cassandra's smoky alto remains one of the most beguiling voices in jazz and blues.
After it was wreathed in a high-tech production by the producer T. Bone Burnett on Thunderbird, she goes back to acoustic basics of traditional jazz vocals here, with a set almost entirely comprised of vintage tunes recorded with a small combo featuring the brilliant pianist du jour, Jason Moran and the guitar of Marvin Sewell.
"Loverly" was produced in a rented house in her Mississippi hometown, with assembled invited musician friends who got down to the business of recording then and there, making this recording so relaxed and personal that it feels like a live set in your own living room.
It's impressive to hear the class and character Cassandra has injected into these 20th century songs.
With the help of Yoruba percussionist Lekan Babalola she knits West African rhythms into stripped-down arrangements, featuring Lonnie Plaxico (bass), Jason Moran (piano) and Herlin Riley (drums).
The decisive player, however, is Nigerian percussionist Lekan Babalola, whose polyrhythmic flurries perk up Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and a version of "Gone With the Wind" whose elegant unison guitar and piano recalls Steely Dan.
He's at the heart of "Arere", inspired by the Yoruban god of willpower, on which Cassandra could be singing in a native dialect, or scatting.
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is a true eye-opener. Cassandra's voice is so deep and resonant it's tangible, and she tells her story of loneliness backed only by Marvin Sewell's silvery acoustic guitar. He reappears playing ethereal slide guitar on "Black Orpheus", supported by Cuban-sounding percussion and piano, under Cassandra's whispered, desolate vocals.
"The Very Thought of You", a sublime duet with guest bassist Reginald Veal, features a rhythmic solo and sinuous vocals.
It is the up-tempo tracks that succeed in turning sparks to flame here. A traddish version of "Lover Come Back To Me" smears Cassandra's mellifluous vocals across Jason Moran's wild piano playing and "Arere", the only original on the album, is a frenetic fusion of unstoppable, cascading rhythms. On "Caravan" too, hectic percussion tumbles over jumbled piano and guitar, with Cassandra's voice at the other side of the room one moment and eerily close the next.
For many, it's Wilson's blues singing that stands out and she invests warhorses such as "St James Infirmary" and "Dust My Broom with a funky vitality.
All in all, not quite a classic, but many fine moments.
Highlights: "Caravan", "St James Infirmary", "Gone With the Wind", and "Arere".
 It's truly loverly... June 24, 2008
10 out of 31 found this review helpful
"Loverly" is the fifth album by Jazz chanteuse Cassandra Wilson that I own. Its name is taken from the song "Wouldn't it be loverly" (from the musical "My fair lady" - an album which coincidentally I got on CD for the first time this week) which she covers here in a big band Jazz style.
"Loverly" is actually an album of covers, the lone original number being the heavily African accented "Arere" (thanks to Nigerian drummer Lekan Babalola, as well as Cassandra singing in Yoruba). The album has a rather loose, spontaneous feel which sounds great. Much like its predecessor "Thunderbird", it displays diverse musical hues in a subtle way.
Songs like the swinging piano sprinkled opening cut "Lover come back to me" (with an extensive piano solo as well as tenor sax), and "A sleeping bee" (with a nice guitar solo) are also given the big band Jazz treatment. "Caravan" is rich in percussion with a faint Cuban feel, "Dust my room" has a slide guitar/Blues sound, while "Gone with the wind" has an acoustic, Folk/Jazz feel. The tender "Spring can really hang you up the most" is a truly beautiful acoustic duet between her smoky vocals and guitarist Marvin Sewell's delicate plucking.
My favourites are the upbeat funky Jazz joint "St. James infirmary" (great piano and guitar playing, and funny lyrics about laying her man to rest), her spare reading of "The very thought of you" (her dusky vocals backed by just bass), and the stunning lilting "Black orpheus" (with a very light Cuban feel).
This album is simply a beauty which every music lover should own, truly (to borrow from her) "loverly"!
And finally, to Yinka, who is no longer around to read and tell me how great my reviews are, or to push me on to be the best I can. You were the wind beneath my wings my bro, my hero. This is for you.
A LITTLE LOVERLY June 20, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Seeing other very positive reviews, I guess I was expecting something special. It is good, for sure, but there are a few aspects which stop it being great. The informality of the session is nice, but it does sometimes sound like a rehearsal. Wilson's voice has that unusual but appealing lugubriousness, but she does occasionally let herself down intonation-wise. The band are fine individually but sometimes get in each others' way. For example, when Sewell and Moran are both comping behind Wilson,it gets a bit too cluttered for my taste. Indeed, Sewell is a guitarist who I'd happily go to see perform, but I don't regard him as an ideal accompanist (rather like having Scofield there--that wouldn't work as well as , say Anthony Wilson or Russell Malone)
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