Eva Cassidy - Imagine
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Free Music Notes for Imagine
Free Music Review: Subtle Improv on Contemporary Standards
Hit: 4 Stars
Way back in the late 60s, I remember catching Judy Collins on the DICK CAVETT SHOW, right about the time that "Someday Soon" b/w "My Father" had been released as a single. I had already purchased her WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES album and had played it to death, but I knew I couldn't assume that everybody knew these songs as well as I did. So I was kind of surprised when she started playing with the melody line on both songs in performance. It seemed to me pretty risky to start improvising on the melody--however slightly--before you had really established it for the average listener.
But then, Judy was a pretty accomplished musician and I had to assume she knew what she was doing. Still it seemed odd to me that she was presenting these songs--for the first time for many listeners--by in effect, often singing a harmony line.
I have been meaning to listen to Eva Cassidy ever since I first read about her. But I have to admit that looking at the track listings on most of the available albums, I became a little skeptical. I usually prefer singers who dig up somewhat obscure songs and promote the work of less than well known songwriters. There are as many deserving unknown songwriters as there are unknown singers, I say. So if you don't write yourself, do everybody a favor and find some fresh voices out there whose songs you can interpret the livin' daylights out of.
So I almost put IMAGINE right back down after looking at the roster of songs listed on the back of the CD. Who needs another version of "Imagine," "Danny Boy," "Tennessee Waltz," "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," etc.? But here's where the Judy Collins connection comes in. (And you thought it was just because both Collins and Cassidy recorded "Who Knows Where The Time Goes." Would I be THAT obvious?). It occurred to me right from track one ("I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore"--the Linda Ronstadt version of which I had played to death back in the 70s) that doing covers of such well known songs gave Eva the freedom to play with the melody line right from the get go. Hey, isn't that reason the great jazz singers always did the standards? If everybody knows the song, you don't necessarily have to wait 'til the very last verse to put your own personal stamp on it.
When Eva assays Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain," she knows that the most listeners will have strong memories of Lightfoot's straightforward, stalwart vocal, and she can almost immediately start inserting her own shadings and vocal twists--subtle as most of them are--without alienating the listener. Bringing something new to an old favorite is never a bad thing. Leastwise if you do it with flair. Eva Cassidy had the flair. You sense the intelligence behind her phrasing and behind the delicate improvisations.
And if you want to hear her take on something a little less familiar, well, there's a bit of that too. The quirky lyrics of the jazzy "Still Not Ready" are particularly refreshing on an album of modern day standards, and while I'm fairly certain I've heard another version of Stevie Wonder's "I Can Only Be Me" somewhere along the road, it's new enough for me that I can truthfully say that as far as I'm concerned, Eva Cassidy now owns this song.
It's been said that her eclecticism worked against Eva Cassidy. In today's niche-driven music scene, that would no doubt be true. But versatility hasn't always been a liability. There was a time in the late 60s and early 70s when a talent such as Eva's would have been promoted and nourished by the industry. Her post mortem success may help a little in bringing around that kind of musical diversity again. That wouldn't be such a bad legacy.
Free Music Review: Some tracks are tolerable
Hit: 2 Stars
She reaches for some of the notes so that it seems as though her throat may pop out of her mouth. This is a very unpleasant sound to listen to. Some of the songs that are within her vocal range are okFree Music Review: Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Hit: 4 Stars
Unbelievably exquisite. An album you will want to stay up playing all night. No one did "Fever" like Peggy Lee, but Eva Cassidy comes close. What she does with Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" will make you want to leave home. "Tennessee Waltz" falls a bit flat, but her "Danny Boy" will have you weeping until St. Paddy's Day.Free Music Review: Imagine Mott
Hit: 5 Stars
Obviously Mott the Dog does not know how Angels sound like, but he would not be disappointed if Angels sounded like Eva Cassidy. Without doubt, she is the female vocalist of our time. It is one of the cruelest tragedies that Eva Cassidy never lived to enjoy her success. In fact, with Cassidy's natural shy personality (yet strong character) that kept her from rocketing to superstardom in her short life, she was never sure of her stage presence. She shunned the spotlight till it was nearly too late, or preferred to sing backup vocals or duets as she did on Chuck Brown's wonderful album 'The Other Side', released in 1995, which although is a Brown album, it is the wonderful voice of Eva Cassidy that grabs your attention. Eva Cassidy refused to limit herself to one style, taking on jazz, funk, blues, rock, pop, and folk, all with that ethereal voice, turning each song into something magical.
Eva Cassidy released only one solo album in her lifetime, the wonderful 'Live at Blues Alley' (1996). It was recorded in Washington's most famous blues club after which it was named, and then it only got a local release.
It was one of the cruelest blows that by the end of that year the dreaded cancer had whisked this beautiful girl with the heavenly voice away from us. Fortunately for those of us left here on our very mortal planet, Eva Cassidy left many recordings behind which are now being released to great critical and commercial acclaim internationally. All of Eva Cassidy's recordings are lovingly managed by the Eva Cassidy estate. So far we had 'Eva By Heart' (1998); 'Songbird' (1998); 'Time After Time' (2000); 'Imagine' (2002); and `American Tune' (2003). These albums have sold over three million copies worldwide and still counting.
It has to be remembered that Eva Cassidy did not write songs herself, but was able to take other people's great skills and twist them into something even greater. At the moment (although I admit it does vary) 'Imagine' is my favorite Eva Cassidy collection.
The album opens with a solo version of 'It Doesn't Matter Anymore' by Paul Anka (who also wrote 'My Way', made famous by Frank Sinatra, Sid Vicious, and then Nigel of the Bastards). This is followed by a version of Little Willie John's 'Fever', not done as Peggy Lee did it in 1958, but as it was originally intended to be, when written in 1956, with Eva's brother joining her, adding violin to Eva's scratch vocal.
You also get a track that has been salvaged from the Blues Alley sessions 'You've Changed', and when you hear this, you realize how high the quality of music was on that particular album. Eva Cassidy's voice sends shivers up and down your spine. She would surely get a nod of approval from the person who first recorded this song, the great Billie Holiday.
Sandy Denny's 'Who Knows Where The Time Goes' gets redefined here, giving the song a whole new lease of life. Eva even gets a little bit country with her true to the roots version of Patti Page's hit 'Tennessee Waltz', which in its days in the 1950's was one of the first cross over country/pop hits.
To finish the album is one of those "enough to make a grown man cry" moments as Eva Cassidy breaks into an emotional solo version of 'Danny Boy'. Still, with all these moments of magic, I think the stand-out track is the title track, a tribute to John Lennon in a touching version of his masterpiece 'Imagine'. Play this song in any room and in seconds it will reduce people to silence as they listen to Eva Cassidy's voice caress the air.
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Free Music Review: Add some beauty to your life
Hit: 5 Stars
I first heard Eva's rendition of "Early Morning Rain" at work, listening to a jazz internet station. It absolutely stopped me dead in my tracks. I immediately bought the Imagine album, and I'm very happy I did. It's wonderful.Eva's voice has a haunting quality that seems to reach into your soul. I'm here at Amazon again buying more Eva Cassidy CDs.
I commend this album to you. It has added some beauty to my life.