+c.| nltUSIC =o rfmrmy-wurmng Jazz smger Cassandra Wilson is calling from New Orleans, where she's mixing her new a.l- bum that will come out in early 2008.</p><p> Being a Mississippi girl, , Wilson will speak up for the entire : region's musical importance.</p><p> But : you can't help asking, how is the l birthplace of jazz post-Katrina? , "It's still difficult," says Wilson, who'Il j give audiences a sneak peek at her new : album when she perfoms at the Blue : Note this Tuesday through Friday 'You : can sense uneasiness At the sme time. : it's mixed with hope and ebullience : There's still that really slark contrast i Once you leave Bourbon Street and ven- : ture into loutlyingl neighborhoods, you I rea-lize there's work to be done Wilson is one to roll up her sleeves and i keep moving, a self-confessed reslless : spiritalways eagerto moveon tolhenext i project,thenextsound Inastringof ac- i claimed, best-seUing albums, she has ex- | panded the boundaries ofjzz by incor- :porating everlthing from blues legend : Robert Jotlnson to Neil Young, James : Taylor and the Monkees ("Last Train to : Clarksville," off her lauded "New Moon : Daughter"CDin 1996) Butlastyeil,she : felt New Orleans was the place for rebirth : "I've had a rough couple of years, and : I haven'tbeen singing enough," says the : 5l-year-old singer and songwriter "My , mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's : three years ago, and then my son had some : problems So I had things going on No : time to work, no time to really practice " : It's a remarkable claim from a womm : tweaked convention to the mu with her 2006 album "Thunder- bird," which shocked purists by using drum loops and oth- ernon-jzz sounds Buteven before her lmdmark - and name-making- 1993 album "Blue Light'til Dam," Wilson proved with the relatiyely con- ventional tunes on 1988's stan- duds CD "Blue Skies" that she was a force to be reckoned with- Now she's singing standtrds again, but with a new- found confidence md insight "There's less emphasis on the technique md being spot.on," Wi-tson says about the difference in her singing now. "And there'smore of m emphasis on the emotional component, the story that's being told " One story she's telling is the unfinished business in New Orleans. "One song I'm doing on the proj- ect is 'Wou.ldn't It Be Loverlv' " says Wilson of the clmsic tune from "My Fair Iady." "That's always been a fa- vorite song of mine I've al- ways loved the sentiment and the emotion I saw the moyie when I was I or 10 years oid.</p><p> Yet what helped me to form it emotionally was this : context: Beingin New Orleans, now. : So mmy people are still homeless.</p><p> There i ae so many plans and so rnuch is going I on dom here.</p><p> They're really trytng to fig- : ure out how to bring back those unlortu- : nate people It'sjust such apowerful songwhen you place it in that context, when : you think about families, whole families, I removed Ard,really,alltheywantisto : just come back home." : Home for Wllson is now in New : York state - Woodstock, to be specific : ("Amongstthe hippies," as she laughing- i ly puts it) She loved Harlem, where she : lived in an apartment once occupied by I Duke Ellington, but she and her husband : and son have moved away from the hectic i lile of Man]rattan : "l wanted something quieter," says Wtl- | son, who also admits she wanted the same j for her adolescent son "NewYork was a I Iittle too rough I want him to be sawy, but I .. youcan'tescapeil If youvegot a teen- : ager liying in New York, they're going to l search for that, no matter what their eco- : nomic status is or what kind of school : they're in.</p><p> They're going to wmt to be in :[things] because of the peer pressue "I had to pull him out of it to get some perspectiye He was 16- It was kind of rough at first, but he likes it now because I can let him be on his om without reallv worrying about him going to a party [ori that sort of thing " Woodstock as home for a jzz singer? lt makes pedect sense to a woman who re- lues by leaming new computer program languages and began by playing folk music when all her friends were listening to R&B "I remember when I was 12 and I bought a Monkees album, and all the oth- er kids were saying, 'What are you do- ing?"'laughs Wilson "Part of it is meiust wanting to be contrary I realize the older I get that there is something inside of me thatjust likes to go left when other peo- ple are going right Just to see what's hap- pening " aBY MICHAEL GILTZ Eo ] c G c toB Ez - rooN oa Eo o z ooc a
