Barbra Joan Streisand is the greatest vocalist of all time. That's been previously established. In almost every. Single. Post. Let's turn our attention instead to the second-greatest vocalist and most UNIQUE voice of our time, who, inexcusably, none of you frakkin' know about. Her name is Eva Marie Cassidy, and she released a single solo recording in her lifetime before her time with us was cut short by a rare permutation of skin cancer. That album is "Live at Blues Alley". It's one of those deceptive gems that floors you all the more because of your humble first impressions. Look at the cover; it's your typical jazz singer portrait of our starlet leaning against a wall, looking dreamy and contemplative. Take a gander at the back-the track list consists of twelve covers, old, sturdy, done-to-death selections like "Stormy Monday" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". Then pop the disc in and say adieu to every preconceived notion you had of this woman. The first song is "Cheek to Cheek". Even the scat intro blows your mind; it has a strange, gripping urgency to it, as if she's keeping rhythm to a timebomb instead of a metronome. Even the most casual jazz listener has heard this Gershwin standard many a time, but, like every song Cassidy applies her golden pipes to, you feel as if you're hearing it, really hearing it, for the first time. There's an uninhibited joy in the way she sings it-for once, we really do believe the singer is "in heaven", as the lyric goes. After finishing a barn-burning rendition of "Stormy Monday", just as we've pegged her as a top-notch blues singer, "Troubled Water" plays, and Cassidy pulls a new trick out of her bag-a sweet, glistening soprano that seems to wraps its arms around you and lend you some of it's lovely warmth. Oh, she's a classically trained jazz chanteuse. No, no, no. On "People Get Ready" and "Oh Had I A Golden Thread", she tosses out glass-shattering high notes with a fiery aplomb to make Aretha bow in submission; there's an expression about black singers "taking you to Church"...Eva, a 33-year-old white woman, flat-out drags you there. But wait, she's channeling a 70's singer-songwriter troubadour on "Tall Trees In Georgia".....okay. The first rule of Eva Club: Nobody puts Eva in a corner, or, for that matter, a genre. Cassidy's voice is like nothing you've ever heard; the purest you've ever heard, but yet filled with the bittersweet, strange ache of life. It's the voice of an angel, if that angel had their heart broken. Don't be surprise if you tear up frequently while listening to her work; her voice coaxes back memories, punctuates thoughts, sometimes bypasses your brain and steals directly into your soul. Her "Over the Rainbow" is the best version ever recorded of the most well-known full-length tune ever written. Judy and Barbra both did boffo versions, but there's something in her version that wipes you out. In Eva's hands, a simple children's song becomes an ode to survival, a cry of desperation, and an affirmation of a life after this one. I got a lump in my throat writing about it just now. A higher power has touched a very select group of people. This touch is visible in Barbra Streisand's stunning high notes; in Stephen Sondheim's ingenious lyrics, in Steven Spielberg's inspired filmmaking, in Cormac McCarthy's breathtaking novels; in Tennesse Williams wrenching plays; in Michael Jackson's effortless moves; in the work of Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Morgan Freeman, Heath Ledger. We walk in the presence of a very few such folks. Eva was one of them. In recent years, former accompanists and family members have unearthed countless posthumous recordings and shared them with the world. Like 'Blues Alley", these recordings feature definitive renditions of songs you only think you've heard before. One of these is a version of "Imagine", in which Eva envisions a man-made utopia. No such place would be complete with her voice-after all, it remains, now and forever, and instrument of God. Check her out. Start with "Fields of Gold", her trademark song. Don't miss out on her mystic, moving take on "Wayfaring Stranger". And damn you if you don't purchase "People Get Ready" and "You've Changed", my two favorites. Ah hell, just buy 'em all. And be amazing. And tell your friends.
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."-John Keats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce-5OWBNGNw
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