{"id":3905,"date":"2014-05-01T21:51:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T21:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2014-05-01T21:51:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T21:51:11","slug":"when-cassandra-wilson-turned-on-her-blue-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/05\/01\/when-cassandra-wilson-turned-on-her-blue-light\/","title":{"rendered":"When Cassandra Wilson Turned on Her Blue Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The rapper Nas <\/strong>will be touring this summer<\/a>, performing in full the material from his breakthrough 1994 recording, \u201cIllmatic,\u201d 20 years after its initial release.
\nBlue Note Records, through its new parent company, Universal Music, has released an remastered and expanded edition of singer Cassandra Wilson<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cBlue Light \u2018Till Dawn.\u201d The new CD bears a sticker that says \u201c20th<\/span> anniversary edition,\u201d which is sort of a fudge, mathwise\u2014the CD originally came out in November, 1993.\u00a0Yet that doesn’t discount the fact that, like Nas’s album, Wilson\u2019s was a game-changer for artists, listeners and music labels. (Wilson\u2019s U.S. tour, on which she\u2019ll perform \u201cBlue Light\u201d material, begins May 3.)
\nThere are attitudes and aesthetics that might link Wilson\u2019s and Nas\u2019s 1990s achievements. There\u2019s also blood.
\nNas\u2019s dad, Olu Dara<\/strong>, a musician I\u2019ve written about several times, played brilliant and concise cornet on Robert Johnson\u2019s \u201cHellhound on My Trail,\u201d on Wilson\u2019s \u201cBlue Light.\u201d He\u2019s from Natchez, Miss., not too far from Jackson, where Wilson was born and raised.
\nDara lent Wilson more than just his distinctive tone: As she tol told me in an interview for Tuesday\u2019s Wall Street Journal<\/a> piece,\u00a0Wilson gained from him this lesson\u2014”to honor and not hide where I’m from.\u201d
\nPart of Wilson\u2019s awakening involved picking up the guitar she\u2019d hidden in fear that \u201cthe ‘jazz police’ would come looking for it.” That one was a Martin acoustic. I like the photo above, because it shows her playing the red Fender she played recently for new project, Black Sun<\/a><\/strong>.That band\u2014essentially her, in collaboration with the powerhouse trio, Harriet Tubman<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0furthers her association with guitarist Brandon Ross<\/strong>, a player whose compassion matches his obvious mastery and range, and whose relationship with Wilson began with the sessions that led to \u201cBlue Light.\u201d
\nIt also confirms what Ross told me he learned back then: \u201cCassandra is a singer. She can even be a diva. But don\u2019t misunderstand: She is one of the cats.”
\nImage: ROBERT ATANASOVSKI\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rapper Nas will be touring this summer, performing in full the material from his breakthrough 1994 recording, \u201cIllmatic,\u201d 20 years after its initial release. Blue Note Records, through its new parent company, Universal Music, has released an remastered and expanded edition of singer Cassandra Wilson\u2019s \u201cBlue Light \u2018Till Dawn.\u201d The new CD bears a … <\/p>\n

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