EVA CASSIDY Complete Perfomance At The Blues Alley Jazz Club, Georgetown, D.C.

Original released on double CD (+DVD) Blix Street G2-10209

(UK 2015, November 13)

Eva Cassidy's performance at the Blues Alley jazz club has become musical history. Twenty years on, experience for the first time every song recorded on the night of the 3rd January 1996. "Nightbird" is Eva Cassidy’s ultimate tour-de-force - 31 songs recorded in one night at the Blues Alley jazz club in Georgetown, DC. Encompassing the full spectrum of Eva’s gospel, blues, jazz and folk roots, "Nightbird" showcases the breadth and depth of one of the world’s finest singers. The recordings have been remixed and remastered from the original tapes resulting in the most sonically engaging Eva Cassidy release to date. Of the 31 songs, 12 are previously unreleased including the title track "Nightbird" as well as the jazz standards "It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)" and "Fever".

Of the 12 unreleased tracks, 8 are previously unheard songs. These include "Son of a Preacher Man", "Route 66", "Late in The Evening", "Baby I Love You" and "Caravan". Quite how Eva Cassidy is able to take songs we've all heard dozens of times ("Bridge Over Troubled Water", "Over The Rainbow" etc) and put entirely her own deeply soulful slant on them is incredible. Whether she is singing jazz, pop, folk or blues, she is totally convincing, and absolutely note and pitch perfect. A very rare talent indeed. The black and white DVD only serves to enhance the intensity of her performance. Although black and white, the sound is crystal clear. Praise also for her delicate guitar work, and a very accomplished and professional band. What more can I say than "phenomenal"? (in Amazon)

WALLPAPER: "EVA"

EVA BY HEART

Original released on CD Liaison 110296-2

(US 1997, September 23)

An album both haunting and inspiring, tragic and mesmerizing, "Eva by Heart" was the singer's only true studio album, and hints at the promise which was never to materialize due to her early demise from cancer. Five of the songs on this set ("I Know You by Heart," "Time Is a Healer," "Wayfaring Stranger," "Wade in the Water," and "Songbird") appear on her "Songbird" collection. The import version of "Eva by Heart" contains an extra track, "Dark End of the Street," which does not appear on the American version, or on any of her albums for that matter. The styles range from folksy (the sweet "I Know You by Heart"), to soulful ("Time Is a Healer"), to introspective ("Say Goodbye," "Waly Waly"), to downright rousing ("Wayfaring Stranger," "How Can I Keep From Singing?") and bluesy ("Blues in the Night."). Eva's voice always sounds crystalline, and her interpretive skills are unmatched (as evidenced on her lovely take of Christine McVie's "Songbird"). The woman had the power to transform a standard or a traditional into her own song, and she could belt out the blues just as good as anybody else (take one listen to "Blues in the Night" or her duet with Chuck Brown, "Need Your Love So Bad"). This disc, as with any of her works, and the posthumous fame she achieved but never sought, stand as testimony as to how true artistry, despite whatever circumstances, has the capacity to transcend, and her story should prove inspiring to any truly talented and struggling musician out in the world. (Jose F. Promis in AllMusic)

THE STORY OF EVA

The heart-tugging story of Eva Cassidy reads almost like the plot of a "Movie of the Week" tearjerker. A native of the Washington, D.C., area, the painfully shy Cassidy earned a local reputation as a masterful interpreter of standards from virtually any genre, blessed with technical agility and a searching passion that cut straight to the emotional core of her material. Despite the evocative instrument that was Cassidy's voice, record companies shied away from her, unsure of how to market her eclectic repertoire; for her part, Cassidy adamantly refused to allow herself to be pigeonholed, prizing the music above any potential fame. In 1996, just when she had begun to record more frequently on a small, local basis, Cassidy was diagnosed with cancer, which had already spread throughout her body and rapidly claimed her life. But her story didn't end there; her music was posthumously championed by a BBC disc jockey, and amazingly, the anthology "Songbird" became a number one million-selling smash in England.

Cassidy was born February 2, 1963, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, and grew up (from age nine on) in Bowie, Maryland. She loved music from an early age, particularly folk and jazz (as a girl, her favorite singer was Buffy Sainte-Marie), and learned guitar from her father Hugh. At one point, Hugh put together a family folk act featuring himself on bass, Eva on guitar and vocals, and her brother Danny on fiddle; Eva and Danny also played country music at a local amusement park, but Eva's sensitivity eventually made performances too difficult on her. Something of a loner during her teens, Cassidy sang with a pop/rock band called Stonehenge while in high school. After graduating, she studied art for a short time, but soon grew dissatisfied with what she was being taught, and dropped out to work at a plant nursery. She sang occasional backing vocals for friends' rock bands around Bowie and Annapolis, but was never comfortable trying to overpower the amplification. In 1986, longtime friend Dave Lourim persuaded Cassidy to lay down some vocals at a recording session for his soft pop/rock group Method Actor. (The results were eventually reissued in 2002.) At the studio, Cassidy met D.C.-area producer Chris Biondo, who was immediately struck by her voice and agreed to help her put together a demo tape she hoped would get her more backup-singing work.

Cassidy became a regular presence at Biondo's studio, where he recorded a wide variety of music; incongruously enough, Cassidy performed backing vocals on D.C. go-go funksters E.U.'s Livin' Large album (singing all of her own harmony parts to give the illusion of a choir) and, later, on gangsta rapper E-40's "I Wanna Thank You." At Biondo's urging, Cassidy formed a backing band to play local clubs, where her singing began to win a following in spite of her discomfort. In 1991, Biondo played Cassidy's demos for Chuck Brown, the originator of D.C.'s swinging go-go funk sound (which never really broke out to a national audience). Brown had been wanting to record an album of jazz and blues standards, and found his ideal duet partner in the sophisticated yet soulful Cassidy. Their collaborative album, "The Other Side", was released in late 1992, and in 1993, the two began performing around the D.C. area together; helped by Brown's outgoing showmanship, Cassidy finally began to lose some of the insecurity and intense fear that usually kept her away from live performance. Several record labels showed interest in signing her, but her recorded submissions always covered too much ground - folk, jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, pop/rock - for the marketing department's taste (or limited imaginations), and the labels always wound up passing.

In September 1993, Cassidy had a malignant mole removed from below her neck and neglected her subsequent checkup appointments. Shortly thereafter, she broke up with Biondo, who'd been her boyfriend for several years, but they continued their professional relationship. In early 1994, the Blue Note label showed some interest in teaming Cassidy with a jazz-pop outfit from Philadelphia called Pieces of a Dream; they recorded the single "Goodbye Manhattan" together, and Cassidy toured with them that summer, but didn't really care for their style. She returned to D.C. and began playing more gigs on her own, though she still made the occasional appearance with Brown. At the end of the year, she won a local music award for traditional jazz vocals.

Cassidy remained unable to secure a record deal, and Biondo and her frustrated manager decided to put out an album themselves. In January 1996, Cassidy played two gigs at the D.C. club Blues Alley; despite her dissatisfaction with the quality of her performance, the album "Live at the Blues Alley" was compiled from the recordings and released that year to much acclaim in the D.C. area. Sadly, it would be the only solo album to appear during Cassidy's lifetime. She moved to Annapolis and took a job painting murals at elementary schools; during the summer, she began experiencing problems with her hip, which she assumed was related to her frequent use of stepladders at work. However, X-rays revealed that her hip was broken, and further tests showed that the melanoma from several years before had spread to her lungs and bones. Cassidy started chemotherapy, but it was simply too late. A benefit show in her honor was staged in September, and Cassidy found the strength to give her last performance there, singing "What a Wonderful World." She died on November 2, 1996. Cassidy virtually swept that year's Washington Area Music Awards, and the album she'd been working on with Biondo prior to her death, "Eva by Heart", was released by Liaison in 1997.

D.C.-based Celtic folk singer Grace Griffith finally found some interest in releasing Cassidy's music at the label she recorded for, Blix Street. 1998's "Songbird" was a compilation culled from Cassidy's three previous releases, and when BBC Radio 2 disc jockey Terry Wogan started playing the version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Songbird" started to sell in the U.K. The British TV show Top of the Pops aired a home-video clip of Cassidy performing the song, quite intensely, at the Blues Alley, and were deluged with requests for further broadcasts. Thanks to all the exposure, "Songbird" steadily grew into a major hit, climbing all the way to the top of the British album charts and selling over a million copies. In 2000, Blix Street followed "Songbird" with "Time After Time", a set of 12 previously unreleased tracks (eight studio, four live) that proved an important addition to Cassidy's slim recorded legacy. The same year saw the appearance of "No Boundaries", an unrepresentative set of adult contemporary pop released by the Renata label over strenuous objections from Cassidy's family. Subsequent collections like "Wonderful World" (2004) and "Simply Eva" (2011) included more studio demos and live recordings, further cementing Cassidy's posthumous reputation, along with 2012's "The Best of Eva Cassidy" and 2015’s expanded and remastered edition of "Nightbird", a collection of all 31 songs that Cassidy performed at the Blues Alley in 1996. (Steve Huey in AllMusic)

ORIGINAL DISCOGRAPHY:

1992 - The Other Side" (with Chuck Brown) 

1997 - Live at the Blues Alley

1997, September 23 - Eva By Heart

2000 - No Boundaries

2000, June 20 - Time After Time

2002, August 20 - Imagine

2003, August 12 - American Tune

2008, August 25 - Somewhere

2015 - Nightbird ("Live at the Blues Alley" complete)

EVA CASSIDY LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY - 2/3 January, 1996

Original released on CD Blix Street G2 10046

(UK, 23 September 1997)

The late Eva Cassidy gained a loyal following in the Washington, D.C., area through appearances in small clubs, utilizing her pitch-perfect singing voice to interpret a variety of tunes ranging from standards to modern-era pop songs. A notoriously shy performer, Eva Cassidy had a somewhat stiff stage presence, but she endeared herself to her audiences by performing songs she obviously loved, combining elements of soul, gospel, blues, and jazz. "Live at Blues Alley" is an excellent showcase for her vocal talents and her ability to make even the most familiar tune uniquely her own. Admittedly, the titles on "Live at Blues Alley" seem like a set list for a bad Vegas lounge act; songs such as Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" have been done to death for decades. Fortunately, Eva Cassidy had an obvious affection for these standards. She sounds as if she had a ball performing the Irving Berlin number, while her subtle reading of the Louis Armstrong tune is nothing less than extraordinary. She was equally successful with more contemporary pop classics like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Take Me to the River." Ultimately, the slower songs are the most stirring, particularly her rendition of "Fields of Gold." Her tear-jerking version of the Sting tune could very well be one of the greatest cover songs ever recorded. Eva Cassidy's popularity slowly began to spread outside of the D.C. area upon the release of this album in early 1996. Unfortunately, Eva Cassidy passed away later that year, just as she began laying the groundwork for what could have been a stellar career in music. However, her posthumous success has been astonishing, with worldwide critical acclaim and extensive exposure on British television that helped her album "Songbird" climb to number one on the British album chart in March, 2001. "Live at Blues Alley" was the only solo album released during Eva Cassidy's lifetime (an album recorded with Chuck Brown, "The Other Side", was also released), and it's an excellent introduction to a performer who never lived to witness the impact her voice made on her fans all over the world.