Blue Light ‘Til Dawn

Beautiful modern day jazz vocalistCassandra Wilson is a postmodern jazz singer, a conceptualist who sees no dividing lines between genres. If her career had commenced in the 1970s rather than the label-conscious 1990s she would have been marketed as a mainstream pop diva. Her magnificent voice and interpretive genius mark her as a jazz singer for the ages, however. She finds her material wherever her fancy takes her and remakes it in her own image, whether it be the country blues of Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen” and “Hellhound On My Trail,” the soul of Ann Peebles’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” the elegant R&B of Charles Brown’s “Tell Me You’ll Wait for Me,” the melodic pop of Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” and Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey,” or her own “Redbone”–and the title track, accompanied by steel guitarist Gib Wharton. –John Swenson