Cassandra Wilson is a singer who came out of the modernistic, so-called M-Base movement in the late 1980s and made a name for herself on the Blue Note label with albums like New Moon Daughter and Blue Light 'Til Dawn that established a new sort of songbook concept, drawing on sources beyond the canon of Gershwin, Porter, Berlin and other Golden Age composers of American popular song. We'll hear selections from a Blue Note compilation that gathers songs Wilson recorded during her stay at the label by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Cyndi Lauper, and more.
We'll also hear from saxophonist Dexter Gordon, singers Shirley Horn and Nina Simone, the Bryan Ferry Orchestra, and pianist Fred Hersch.