The Quarantined Jazz Voyager
Another week has passed and life goes on. To continually relax in between working on a few projects, I’m kicking back with Blue Light ’til Dawn. This studio album by jazz singer Cassandra Wilson. Her first album on the Blue Note label, it was released in 1993. It contains Wilson’s interpretations of songs by various blues and rock artists, as well as three original compositions.
The album marked a shift in Wilson’s recording style, mostly dropping the electric instruments of her earlier albums in favor of acoustic arrangements. A critical and commercial breakthrough, the album was re-released in 2014 with three bonus tracks recorded live somewhere in Europe during the Blue Light ’til Dawn Tour. The eponimous single was nominated for the Grammy Award as Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
As of March 1996, the album sold over 250 000 copies. While recording the album, Wilson’s father, jazz bassist Herman Fowlkes, died. In an interview for New York Magazine Wilson explained that the album’s name refers to a certain time of night. Says Wilson “At a party you have a blue light to have a certain vibe. The title refers to that light, that blue, giving way to the dawn. It’s after after hours, the predawn twilight”. The album peaked at #10 on the U.S. Billboard Chart.
Track Listing | 34:22- You Don’t Know What Love Is (Gene DePaul, Don Raye) ~ 6:05
- Come On In My Kitchen (Robert Johnson) ~ 4:53
- Tell Me You’ll Wait For Me (Charles Brown, Oscar Moore) ~ 4:48
- Children Of The Night (Thom Bell, Linda Creed) ~ 5:19
- Hellhound On My Trail (Johnson) ~ 4:34
- Black Crow (Joni Mitchell) ~ 4:38
- Sankofa (Cassandra Wilson) ~ 2:02
- Estrellas (Cyro Baptista) ~ 1:59
- Redbone (Wilson) ~ 5:35
- Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison) ~ 5:36
- Blue Light ’til Dawn (Wilson) ~ 5:09
- I Can’t Stand the Rain (Don Bryant, Bernard Miller, Ann Peebles) ~ 5:27
- Cassandra Wilson – vocals
- Olu Dara – cornet
- Don Byron – clarinet
- Charlie Burnham – violin, mandocello
- Tony Cedras – accordion
- Gib Wharton – pedal steel guitar
- Chris Whitley – resophonic guitar
- Brandon Ross – acoustic guitar
- Kenny Davis – bass
- Lonnie Plaxico – bass
- Lance Carter – drums, percussion
- Bill McClellan – drums, percussion
- Cyro Baptista – percussion
- Jeff Haynes – percussion
- Kevin Johnson – percussion
- Vinx – percussion
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Robert Deane Kincaide was born on March 18, 1911 in Houston, Texas but raised in Decatur, Illinois. He began playing professionally and working as an arranger in the early 1930s, working with Wingy Manone in 1932, then took a job with Ben Pollack from 1933 to 1935.
He arranged for Benny Goodman on the side before joining Bob Crosby’s group in 1935. Deane went on to work with Woody Herman and Manone again and by the end of the decade he worked briefly with Tommy Dorsey. In the first half of the 1940s he worked with Joe Marsala, Glenn Miller, Ray Noble, and Muggsy Spanier.
Serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he played in a ship’s band on the USS Franklin. He joined Ray McKinley’s band in 1946, working with him until 1950. From the 1950s until the early 1980s Kincaide worked primarily as an arranger for television. Arranger and saxophonist Deane Kincaide passed away at the age of 91 in St. Cloud, Florida on August 14, 1992.
Share a dose of a Houston arranger to inspire inquisitive minds to learn about musicians whose legacy lends their genius to the jazz catalog…
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ray Ellington was born Henry Pitts Brown on March 17, 1916 in Kennington, London, England, the youngest of four children of a Black father and Russian Jew mother. His father died when he was four years old, and was raised as a strictly Orthodox Jew, attending the South London Jewish School before entering show business at the age of twelve, when he appeared in an acting role on the London stage.
Ellington’s first break came in 1937 when he joined Harry Roy and His Orchestra as the band’s drummer, replacing Joe Daniels. His vocal talents were put to good use, from the time of his first session when he recorded Swing for Sale. Called up in 1940 he joined the Royal Air Force as a physical training instructor where he served throughout the war. He played in various service bands including RAF Blue Eagles.
Post military service, Ray resumed his career, fronting his own group, playing at The Bag O’Nails club. By early in 1947, he rejoined the Harry Roy band for a few months, later forming The Ray Ellington Quartet the same year. Specializing in jazz, he experimented with many other genres throughout the show’s history and his musical style was heavily influenced by the comedic jump blues of Louis Jordan.
His band was one of the first in the UK to feature the stripped-back guitar/bass/drums/piano format that became the basis of rock and roll. His band was also one of the first groups in Britain to prominently feature the electric guitar and use an amplified guitar produced and introduced by their guitar player, Lauderic Caton.
Drummer, singer, bandleader Ray Ellington, best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960, passed away of cancer on February 27, 1985.
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Three Wishes
When asked what his three wishes would be, Billy Taylor told Nica he would wish for:
- “Wish I had the time to do all the things that I’m interested in.”
- “Wish I had the time to spend with all the people and things I care about.”
- “I wish I had the time.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats ~ Compiled and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Woody Witt was born on March 16, 1969 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. He started on the clarinet in fourth grade, switching his focus to saxophone the following year. Becoming a professional musician at the age of 16, he studied at the University of Houston, earning a Master’s degree in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music.
The tenorist has recorded over thirty compact discs as a sideman and recorded twelve sessions as a leader. He has collaborated with Randy Brecker, Tim Hagans, Jim Rotondi, James Moody, David Liebman, Tim Armacost,Conrad Herwig, Joe LoCascio, Larry Ham, Mark Levine, Louis Hayes, Adam Nussbaum, Billy Hart, Nancy King and Gabrielle Stravelli. He has worked with the Houston Symphony, and has been featured on major third-stream works that blend together jazz and classical music.
He won the 2010 Chamber Music America French American Cultural Exchange grant and the 2014 International Jazz Saxophone Competition in Taiwan. Since 1999 Woody has been the artistic director of Houston’s jazz club, Cezanne, and now owns the club.
As an educator Witt has taught at Houston Community College since 2000, is an Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston, and has conducted countless master classes and workshops throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil and Asia.
Tenor saxophonist, composer and educator Woody Witt continues to expand his musical creativity.
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