Blue Skies (Cassandra Wilson album)


Blue Skies is the third studio album by American jazz singer Cassandra Wilson. It was released on the JMT label in 1988 and features Wilson performing ten jazz standards accompanied by Mulgrew Miller on piano, Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, and Lonnie Plaxico on bass.

Background

The album is named after the Irving Berlin's 1926 song and includes 10 renderings of famous jazz standards. Wilson explained: "I enjoy doing standards, and I did the album as a special project. However, that is not my direction in fact. I think it's important for us to develop new standards and to recreate the music of today inside of a new context. This is a different time and somebody's going to do that."

Reception

In a review for Allmusic, Thom Jurek gave the album three stars out of five and noted that it was evidence of Wilson's move away from the M-Base style of her previous albums. He said that the album was "Not a masterpiece, but a really compelling first experiment with the more intimate forms and smaller groups Wilson would employ later on." He praised her versions of "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" and "Sweet Lorraine".

Track listing

  1. "Shall We Dance?" – 7:21
  2. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" – 5:46
  3. "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" – 5:15
  4. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" – 4:51
  5. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" – 5:04
  6. "I'm Old Fashioned" – 3:07
  7. "Sweet Lorraine" – 5:31
  8. "My One and Only Love" – 6:02
  9. "Autumn Nocturne" – 5:01
  10. "Blue Skies" – 3:07

    Personnel

Band
Production notes