For a reviewer it is often a daunting task to review a cover CD. Usually little is added to the original. In jazz this is commonplace for young jazz vocalists who cover the American Songbook for the thousandth time. Who is waiting for it? Unless a top singer like Cassandra Wilson is studying this material… In the past she has already amply proven that she is excellent at editing other people's
… material. This is also the case on Coming Forth By Day, a CD with songs by Billie Holiday that would have turned a hundred years in 2015. Like no other, Wilson takes the material to himself and provides it with a very dark blues layer that gives Holiday's lyrics an extra charge. From blues from the smokiest jazz cafes to spooky haunting frenzy, Holiday's repertoire receives the darkest treatment it has ever had. In the midst of all these arrangements, Wilson's voice shines like a rock in the surf and shows that there is something beautiful and fragile in everything to cling to. (AD)more
