Blue Skies (Cassandra Wilson album)

Blue Skies is the third studio album by American jazz singer Cassandra Wilson.[1] 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.[2]

Blue Skies
Studio album by Cassandra Wilson
Released	February 1988
Recorded	February 1988
Studio	A&R Recording Studios, New York City
Genre	Vocal jazz
Length	43:30
Label	JMT JMT 834 419
Producer	Stefan F. Winter
Cassandra Wilson chronology
Days Aweigh (1987) Blue Skies (1988) Jumpworld (1990)

Background

The album is named after the Irving Berlin's 1926 song[3] and includes 10 renderings of famous jazz standards.[4] 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."[5]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD	[8]
The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide	[9]
Tom Hull	B+[10]

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".[6]

Track listing

1. "Shall We Dance?" (Rodgers and Hammerstein) – 7:21
2. "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 5:46
3. "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" (Lerner and Loewe) – 5:15
4. "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (Rodgers and Hart) – 4:51
5. "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You" (Andy Razaf, Don Redman) – 5:04
6. "I'm Old Fashioned" (Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer) – 3:07
7. "Sweet Lorraine" (Cliff Burwell, Mitchell Parish) – 5:31
8. "My One and Only Love" (Robert Mellin, Guy Wood) – 6:02
9. "Autumn Nocturne" (Kim Gannon, Josef Myrow) – 5:01
10. "Blue Skies" (Irving Berlin) – 3:07

Personnel

Band

• Cassandra Wilson – vocals
• Mulgrew Miller – piano
• Lonnie Plaxico – bass
• Terri Lyne Carrington – drums

Production notes

• Stefan F. Winter – producer
• Hiroshi Itsuno – executive producer
• Joe Ferla – engineer
• Angela Gomez – assistant engineer
• Adrian von Ripka – mastering
• Steve Byram – cover design
• Günter Mattei – cover design

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Position
1988	Billboard Top Jazz Albums	2

References

1. "Cassandra Wilson". Jazz Forum. For Jazz, sp. z o. o. (116–121): 52. 1989. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
2. Shimada, T., JMT label discography, accessed September 26, 2014
3. Giddins, Gary (1998). Visions of Jazz: The First Century. Oxford University Press. p. 643. ISBN 9780199879533. Retrieved 26 September 2019. Days Aweigh (Cassandra Wilson album).
4. Enstice, Wayne; Stockhouse, Janis (2004). Jazzwomen: Conversations with Twenty-One Musicians. Indiana University Press. p. 339. ISBN 9780253010148. Retrieved 26 September 2019. Blue Skies (Cassandra Wilson album).
5. Warwick, Jacqueline (2017). Musicological Identities: Essays in Honor of Susan McClary. Routledge. p. 110. ISBN 9781351556750. Retrieved 26 September 2019.
6. Jurek, Thom. "Blue Skies - Cassandra Wilson | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
7. Larkin, Colin. "The Encyclopedia of Popular Music". archive.org. p. 5871. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
8. Cook, Richard. "The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD". archive.org. p. 1589. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
9. Swenson, John (1999). The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide. Random House. Retrieved 23 September 2019. Blue Skies (Cassandra Wilson album).
10. "Tom Hull: Grade List: Cassandra Wilson". Tom Hull. Retrieved 10 July 2020.