CHARLIE ROSE: Cassandra Wilson has been hailed as the greatest female jazz vocalist of her generation. She is from Mississippi, but her music was shaped in New Orleans as well as in New York, where she currently lives. Her latest record, New Moon Daughter, has won rave reviews. She joins us now to perform and to talk about her music. And I'm going to listen to you perform, but I just want to tell you how pleased I am to have you on this program.

CASSANDRA WILSON, Jazz Singer: Well, thank you, Charlie. We're pleased to be here.

CHARLIE ROSE: All right. Before you sing, tell me who we have joining you, backup here.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Three of the greatest-

CHARLIE ROSE: The best.

CASSANDRA WILSON: -musicians in the world.

CHARLIE ROSE: In the world.

CASSANDRA WILSON: On the planet.

CHARLIE ROSE: They are, yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: I'll start here. On percussion-

CHARLIE ROSE: Start here.

CASSANDRA WILSON: -this is Jeffrey Haynes [?].

CHARLIE ROSE: Mr. Jeffrey Haynes. How are you? Over here?

CASSANDRA WILSON: This is Mr. Brandon Ross.

CHARLIE ROSE: How are you? Great to have you.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Mr. Loni Plaxico [?].

CHARLIE ROSE: On the bass. Yeah. All right. I'll be back and we'll chat.

[Cassandra Wilson performs]

CHARLIE ROSE: All right. Thank you very much. Let me just talk a little bit about the music. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, yeah?

CASSANDRA WILSON: Yes.

CHARLIE ROSE: Your father was a jazz guitarist.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Yes. A jazz musician.

CHARLIE ROSE: A jazz musician.

CASSANDRA WILSON: He played guitar. He played bass-

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: -as well. Started off playing trumpet.

CHARLIE ROSE: Music was always around the house.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Oh, yes, definitely.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah. Did you know early on that music was what it's going to be for you?

CASSANDRA WILSON: I knew that music was what it was.

CHARLIE ROSE: That was it.

CASSANDRA WILSON: That was it. I mean, that was my passion. That's where I got my greatest joy. I didn't think that it would be a career because my mother was a schoolteacher, and she didn't believe that I would be able to be successful as a musician. So I thought at, at some time, you know, that I would have to get a real job. But I'm surprised.

CHARLIE ROSE: That, that this is-

CASSANDRA WILSON: Pleasantly, yeah.

CHARLIE ROSE: There is an evolution about what you do. I mean, when you listen to the, to the music and you listen to the songs here and the, and the song writers that you have brought on this album, you know, tell me about the decision to include Hank Williams, for example. You know, who- what went into that choice?

CASSANDRA WILSON: Well, the South is a wonderful place for music.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: It's got all of it. It's got country music-

CHARLIE ROSE: Right.

CASSANDRA WILSON: -it's got R&B, it's got blues, it's jazz, it's all of these musics- these kinds of music-

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: -actually emanate, I believe, from the South. So it's really natural for me to do this kind of music because it's a music that I heard growing up. I always loved Hank Williams.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: And I, I never drew the line between what Hank Williams does, you know, his artistry, and what, what B.B. King does, you know?

CHARLIE ROSE: Coltrane was an influence.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Coltrane. Yes, sir. Miles Davis, especially.

CHARLIE ROSE: Miles Davis.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Yes,

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Definitely.

CHARLIE ROSE: And Wynton Marsalis' dad when you went to New Orleans-

CASSANDRA WILSON: I sat in with him.

CHARLIE ROSE: Ellis Marsalis. CASSANDRA WILSON: Yes. I learned a lot from Mr. Marsalis. Sat in with him a couple of times and got really some great instruction on what I was doing.

CHARLIE ROSE: What did he teach you?

CASSANDRA WILSON: I did `Lush Life' with him, and I wasn't really familiar with the melody, as familiar as I should have been, and I sang it with him, and he said, `You know, that's really great, but go and learn the music. Go and learn-'

CHARLIE ROSE: Learn the music.

CASSANDRA WILSON: `-learn the music.'

CHARLIE ROSE: When you think of great women in jazz, you think of Ella Fitzgerald, think of Billie Holiday, think if Sarah Vaughan. Who had sort of an influence on you? Who did you reach into, in a sense, as you were evolving, think about as a musician?

CASSANDRA WILSON: I think every one of those women.

CHARLIE ROSE: All of them.

CASSANDRA WILSON: At different periods of time. I'd even add Nina Simone to the list.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah. So would I.

CASSANDRA WILSON: And Abby Lincoln.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: And there are the other singers, too: James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah. In fact, it's said about you that folk had an early influence.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Yes. Well, that was- that's what I started performing when I was - excuse me - when I was about 18, 19 years old. The first gig I had was playing guitar and singing all by myself, solo gig.

CHARLIE ROSE: Folk songs, mainly.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Yeah. Mostly folk music.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah. Where is it heading in your head? I mean, where is the evolution moving to?

CASSANDRA WILSON: Hm. I don't know. I really like this- I love the sound, I love the strings.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.

CASSANDRA WILSON: It's a very organic music, and it's, it's very open, it's very spacious. I don't know where it's heading, but I'm following it.

CHARLIE ROSE: I just want to tell you what Stephen Holden in The New York Times said about this album. `The music is an unclassifiable hybrid of folk, jazz, pop, blues and country. Listening to Cassandra Wilson's astonishing new album one has the pleasure not only of stumbling into an intensely aromatic musical environment, but also of hearing the gifted vocalist exalt in her continuing self-discovery.' My, my. It's great to have you. I hope you'll come back. Thank you. We will hear some more of Cassandra Wilson and some things that she prerecorded for us earlier. Pleasure. Thank you. Thank you guys.

CASSANDRA WILSON: Our pleasure.

CHARLIE ROSE: Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time.

[Clip of Cassandra Wilson performing]

The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, although the text has been checked against an audio track, in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it may not have been proofread against videotape.

Source : 04/17/96 PBS Charlie Rose
(c) Copyright 1996 PBS. All rights reserved.