Eva Cassidy - Nightbird (4LP)
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Eva Cassidy [click here to see more vinyl featuring Eva Cassidy]
Bass Guitar – Chris Biondo
Drums – Raice McLeod
Electric Guitar – Keith Grimes
Organ [Hammond] – Hilton Felton (H3)
Piano – Lenny "The Ringer" Williams
4 LP, gatefold sleeve
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Live (A1-H2) & Studio (H3)
Record Press : Optimal Media GmbH
Label : Blix Street
Original Label : Blix Street
Recorded at Blues Alley, Washington DC on January 3rd 1996 except H3 recorded at Chris Biondo's studio.
Engineered by Roy Battle
Produced by Chris Biondo, Eva Cassidy
Remastered by Robert Vosgien
Released in 2015
Tracks:
Side A:
- Blue Skies
- Ain't Doin' Too Bad
- Ain't No Sunshine
- Fields of Gold
Side B:
- Baby I Love You
- Honeysuckle Rose
- Route 66
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
Side C:
- Band Introduction
- Chain of Fools
- Fever
- Autumn Leaves
- Fine and Mellow
Side D:
- Cheek To Cheek
- It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
- Late In the Evening
- Next Time You See Me
- Waly Waly
Side E:
- Take Me To the River
- Nightbird
- People Get Ready
- The Letter
Side F:
- Son Of A Preacher Man
- Stormy Monday
- Tall Trees In Georgia
- Something's Got A Hold On Me
Side G:
- Time After Time
- Over the Rainbow
- Welcome To the Club
- Caravan
Side H:
- You've Changed
- Wonderful World
- Oh, Had I A Golden Thread
Reviews:
“The late singer/guitarist Eva Cassidy (1963-1996) was a possibility nature did not allow fulfilled. Barely started in what promised to be a successful career, Cassidy died at 33 from malignant melanoma, the same year her notable Live at Blues Alley (Eva Music) was recorded and released. The present Nightbird is the expansion and 20th Anniversary celebration of a life ended too soon and a recording promising so much. Recorded January 3, 1996, Cassidy would be gone by November...a streak of light across the night sky.
A child of the late Baby Boom, Cassidy had the advantage of musically literate parents who exposed her to a broad array of music. Rather than occupy herself with listening to the standard white-bread music on AM radio, she concentrated on Southern soul, jazz, blues, and R&B. She assimilated these genre seamlessly emerging, fully formed, on the stage of Georgetown's Blues Alley. Cassidy's performance was dizzying in scope. Heading up a durable quartet, Cassidy made her way across the whole of 20th Century American Music.
Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is a fitting place to begin a show, an early Tin Pan Alley song updated by a sensitive and perceptive Cassidy. The same can be said for her other hard ballad performances: the early "Autumn Leaves," " Wonderful World" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" and Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." Cassidy completely renewed Harburg and Arlen's "Over the Rainbow," making an already iconic song a quiet lightning bolt. Her performance of Sting's "Field of Gold" is equally provocative.
Nightbird reveals a modern song stylist not unlike Frank Sinatra. Cassidy's interpretative skills had few, if any, peers. She was equally at home with the Box Tops ("The Letter") and Bobby Troup ("Route 66"); Peggy Lee ("Fever") and Aretha Franklin ("Chain of Fools"). Her repertoire outside of the jazz standards and blues lay easily in the memory of anyone coming of age in the 1980s and '90s. Nightbird is a singular event to be savored and a talent too great to have experienced for such a short time.” All About Jazz by C. Michael Bailey, January 8, 2016
Ratings :
Discogs : 4,65 / 5