Perhaps the pairing of Cassandra Wilson and Billie Holiday carries a whiff of inevitability, but there's nothing predictable about Coming Forth by Day.
Released to coincide with Holiday's centennial in 2015, Coming Forth by Day explicitly celebrates Lady Day by drawing upon standards she sang in addition to songs she wrote, but Wilson deliberately sidesteps the conventional by hiring Nick Launay as a producer.
As a result of his work with Nick Cave, Launay mastered a certain brand of spooky Americana, something that comes in handy with the Holiday catalog, but Coming Forth by Day is never too thick with murk.
It luxuriates in its atmosphere, sometimes sliding into a groove suggesting smooth '70s soul, often handsomely evoking a cinematic torch song -- moods that complement each other and suggest Holiday's work without replicating it.
This is a neat trick: such flexibility suggests how adaptable Holiday's songbook is while underscoring the imagination behind Wilson's interpretations.
Certainly, Launay deserves credit for his painterly production, but the success of Coming Forth by Day belongs entirely to Wilson, who proves that she's an heir to Holiday's throne by never once imitating her idol.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Don't Explain | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:35 | 10 MB | 22 MB |
| 2 | Billie's Blues | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 05:07 | 11 MB | 27 MB |
| 3 | Crazy He Calls Me | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 06:19 | 14 MB | 35 MB |
| 4 | You Go to My Head | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:09 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 5 | All of Me | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:07 | 9 MB | 23 MB |
| 6 | The Way You Look Tonight | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 03:50 | 8 MB | 22 MB |
| 7 | Good Morning Heartache | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:10 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 8 | These Foolish Things | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:13 | 9 MB | 24 MB |
| 9 | Strange Fruit | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 04:55 | 11 MB | 27 MB |
| 10 | I'll Be Seeing You | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 06:09 | 14 MB | 28 MB |
| 11 | Last Song (For Lester) | Cassandra Wilson | Play | 05:50 | 13 MB | 31 MB |
| 53 mins | 122 MB | |||||
| 53 mins | 294 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cassandra Wilson | Primary Artist |
Cassandra Wilson
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |