music matters

Song
St. James Infirmary by Cassandra Wilson

Back story
Cassandra Wilson is an adventurous jazz singer blessed with a gorgeous, husky alto voice. She is not afraid to take chances, and has explored funk, jazz, blues, pop, folk, and everything in between. She became one of the most admired vocalists of the 90′s, and continues to make great music in 2010. She has a new album, Silver Pony, coming out sometime later this year.

Why this song
This song is taken from her excellent 2008 release, Loverly. The album is mostly standards, and Cassandra and her band demonstrate how to breathe new life into the endlessly covered American songbook. St. James Infirmary was made famous by Louis Armstrong nearly 100 years ago, but here the song is transformed from a dirge into a soulful, funky, mid-tempo blues. The excellent band includes guitarist Marvin Sewell, bassists Reggie Veal and Lonnie Plaxico, drummer Herlin Riley, percussionist Lekan Babalola, and pianist Jason Moran.

More info
Song origins
All About Jazz
All Music

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This was performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 2008. The lineup is similar the the album version, with the exception of Jonathan Batiste on piano instead of Jason Moran. The extended guitar intro really sets the funky and slightly steamy mood. This live version features extended guitar and piano solos. Unfortunately, the ending appears to be cut off abruptly, but it at least gives you a taste of Cassandra’s live performance energy.

This is the album version.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

Song
Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega

Back story
Suzanne Vega is a New York-based singer-songwriter whose plaintive vocals and folksy arrangements have made her a staple of the liberal arts college crowd for much of the 80’s and 90’s, her most prolific period.    She is often compared to Leonard Cohen, as both use poetic metaphor and spoken-word phrasing to explore themes of love and loss.

Why this song
The recent funky live performance with the Roots (see below) re-sparked my interest in Tom’s Diner.  When Suzanne Vega wrote the song in the early 80’s, she envisioned it for piano and voice, but since she didn’t play piano, she decided to sing unaccompanied.  She opened concerts with the song to channel her energy and to encourage the audience to settle down, and claims it has never failed her.  An interesting side note is that the original a cappella recording was used a reference track for those developing the MP3 file format.  Apparently the warmth of her unprocessed voice was very difficult to preserve during MP3 compression, so the algorithm was fine-tuned until this song sounded acceptable.  Thus Suzanne Vega is sometimes called “The Mother of the MP3.”

More info
Suzanne talks about the song
Wikipedia

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This is the web-only video recently recorded with the Roots for the Jimmy Fallon Show. That’s right, Suzanne Vega and the Roots! She was on the show to play an acoustic version of a song from her new record, and graciously agreed to perform this song with the Roots during a sound-check.

This is the original a cappella version. Also available on her Solitude Standing album.

Finally, this is the remixed version by DNA that made the song famous. Suzanne liked this remix (done without her permission) so much that she allowed it to be officially released by her label.

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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010