The Australian, Chris Boyd, Monday 15 August 2011.
WHEN Eva Cassidy died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 33, she had featured on just three records: the self-titled debut of badass R&B band Method Actor in 1988; The Other Side, a jazzy studio collaboration with the “godfather of Go-Go”, Chuck Brown, in 1992; and a live recording in 1996.
That album, Live at Blues Alley, is typical Cassidy, and the 13 songs are astonishingly varied. She sings Curtis Mayfield, Billie Holiday, Sting, T-Bone Walker, Irving Berlin, Paul Simon, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Al Green.
If anything, she had too many strong suits, and bewildered studio A&R reps. She had no “musical point of view” said one.
Posthumously, the sifting has been done for her. In the eight releases (not counting bootlegs) since Terry Wogan played Cassidy’s poignant version of Over the Rainbow on his radio breakfast show in Britain in 2000, the heartbreakers have muscled their way front and centre: Field of Gold, Wonderful World, True Colours.
In her “karaoke show” about Cassidy, Clare Bowditch rights the balance somewhat.
There was a deliciously fast version of Summertime, with a strutting double bass, brushed snare drum and sax. Fever had some Stray Cat-style semi-acoustic licks courtesy of Ashley Naylor. And there was a touch of boogie-woogie in Monique diMattina’s piano on Hallelujah I Love Him So.
Her singing on Cheek to Cheek recalled Barbara Cook (and I regard Cook as the best singer in English).
In Bridge over Troubled Water, Bowditch focused on the uplift of bridge not the turbulence beneath. It was a marvellous, joyful reading.
Not that Bowditch was afraid of Cassidy’s concentrated emotion, or of her lofty top notes.
Repeatedly, she had us wondering if she would hit her mark. Then, exactly like Cassidy, she soared far beyond our expectations, into the stratosphere.
Only once in the two-hour show was the musical arrangement less than a perfect fit, in Songbird, the Fleetwood Mac song. Here, the vocals demanded a less rigid arrangement.
As a biographical concert, Eva is exceptional. Without skirting the sadness of the story, the writers don’t get bogged in tear-jerking mawkishness.
As a storyteller, Bowditch is a natural: engaging, charismatic, relaxed and utterly delightful. She’s also impressively well informed. In her role as co-writer, Bowditch spoke to Chris Biondo, Cassidy’s producer, collaborator and sometime lover.
The authenticity extends to her voice which, like Cassidy’s, is remarkably true.
Tickets: $55. Bookings: (03) 9650 1500. Until August 21.
Review: Tales From The Life Of Eva Cassidy
The Australian, Chris Boyd, Monday 15 August 2011.
WHEN Eva Cassidy died of cancer in 1996 at the age of 33, she had featured on just three records: the self-titled debut of badass R&B band Method Actor in 1988; The Other Side, a jazzy studio collaboration with the “godfather of Go-Go”, Chuck Brown, in 1992; and a live recording in 1996.
That album, Live at Blues Alley, is typical Cassidy, and the 13 songs are astonishingly varied. She sings Curtis Mayfield, Billie Holiday, Sting, T-Bone Walker, Irving Berlin, Paul Simon, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Al Green.
If anything, she had too many strong suits, and bewildered studio A&R reps. She had no “musical point of view” said one.
Posthumously, the sifting has been done for her. In the eight releases (not counting bootlegs) since Terry Wogan played Cassidy’s poignant version of Over the Rainbow on his radio breakfast show in Britain in 2000, the heartbreakers have muscled their way front and centre: Field of Gold, Wonderful World, True Colours.
In her “karaoke show” about Cassidy, Clare Bowditch rights the balance somewhat.
There was a deliciously fast version of Summertime, with a strutting double bass, brushed snare drum and sax. Fever had some Stray Cat-style semi-acoustic licks courtesy of Ashley Naylor. And there was a touch of boogie-woogie in Monique diMattina’s piano on Hallelujah I Love Him So.
Her singing on Cheek to Cheek recalled Barbara Cook (and I regard Cook as the best singer in English).
In Bridge over Troubled Water, Bowditch focused on the uplift of bridge not the turbulence beneath. It was a marvellous, joyful reading.
Not that Bowditch was afraid of Cassidy’s concentrated emotion, or of her lofty top notes.
Repeatedly, she had us wondering if she would hit her mark. Then, exactly like Cassidy, she soared far beyond our expectations, into the stratosphere.
Only once in the two-hour show was the musical arrangement less than a perfect fit, in Songbird, the Fleetwood Mac song. Here, the vocals demanded a less rigid arrangement.
As a biographical concert, Eva is exceptional. Without skirting the sadness of the story, the writers don’t get bogged in tear-jerking mawkishness.
As a storyteller, Bowditch is a natural: engaging, charismatic, relaxed and utterly delightful. She’s also impressively well informed. In her role as co-writer, Bowditch spoke to Chris Biondo, Cassidy’s producer, collaborator and sometime lover.
The authenticity extends to her voice which, like Cassidy’s, is remarkably true.
Tickets: $55. Bookings: (03) 9650 1500. Until August 21.
www.talesfromthelifeofevacassidy.com.au