Eva Cassidy
I noticed while perusing the local music listings that Chuck Brown, “The Godfather of Go-Go,” is performing this weekend at Blues Alley in Washington D.C. While the musical style he created was the forerunner to other great contemporary styles, there was a different reason why the concert listing caught my attention. I couldn’t help but remember a young artist whose stunning talent caught Brown’s attention many years ago: Eva Cassidy. She had graced the same Blues Alley stage at the height of her short career to create a live album that would display to the world the pristine voice that Brown had recognized. It was really only years after her death at age 33 that the world listened and understood.
It was 1991 when Chuck Brown met Eva Cassidy, a virtually unknown vocalist from Bowie, Maryland. Inspired by classic vocal jazz duet albums of the likes of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Brown decided to create a jazz duet album of his own and asked Cassidy to join him. Following the release of “The Other Side,” the pair played in all the well-known venues in the D.C. metro area and received some radio airplay. In 1993 Cassidy received a Wammie award given by the Washington Area Music Association in the category of traditional jazz. The following year she was honored with two awards, one for jazz and the other for Roots Rock/Traditional R&B. It was January of 1996 when Cassidy decided to release her own solo album recorded live at Blues Alley in D.C.
“Live At Blues Alley” introduced listeners to Cassidy’s voice in all of its glory; from the swinging “Cheek to Cheek” and “Blue Skies” to her haunting interpretation of “Autumn Leaves,” in which Cassidy accompanies herself on acoustic guitar. This album is full of feeling and passionate musical interpretation. Cassidy puts as much of herself into Billie Holiday’s “Fine and Mellow” as she puts into Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Waters.” Her voice conveys the blues, soul, jazz, gospel; whatever element is needed to convey the song fully. Just as incredible as the range of styles she covers is the literal range of notes that sound of equal ease to her clear voice. Soft and intimate to a searing belt, she does the lyric justice.
Following the locally acclaimed release of “Live at Blues Alley,” Cassidy began work on a studio record. Tragically, this was also the same time that she discovered that cancer had spread in her body and it was predicted that she only had a few months to live. Despite aggressive treatment, Eva Cassidy passed away on November 2, 1996. She was posthumously inducted into the Washington Area Music Association’s Hall of Fame. Her studio album, “Eva by Heart,” was released the following year.
It wasn’t until several years after her death that her music received much worldwide publicity. Word spread with the release of a collection of her music by Blix Street Records. After a 2000 National Public Radio feature on Cassidy, her music received another influx of media attention and her album sales grew rapidly. ABC’s Nightline covered her life in “The Eva Cassidy Story,” which was so popular it was re-aired three times. Today she has sold more than six million records and has achieved three consecutive posthumous No. 1 sales in England. Mojo magazine rightly recognized her as “one of the greatest interpreters of popular song of the last 30 years.”
Now a decade after she first garnered worldwide attention, an acoustic album of her music has been released, featuring Eva accompanying herself on guitar. In the liner notes, Bill Straw of Blix Street Records, notes, “Eva Cassidy’s small, but magically productive body of work now serves as a beacon to a new generation of singers exploring the musical giants who have gone before, starting in many instances with Eva herself. For those who would study the music of Eva Cassidy, less is definitely more. For everyone else, whether less is more or not, ‘Simply Eva’ provides an opportunity to experience the unadorned music of Eva Cassidy and decide for yourself.”
