Eva Cassidy

**jaco** · 11-11-2018, 10:00 PM

I know this forum is about jazz guitarists. But I think we can learn so much from great vocalist phrasing. Her take on Autumn Leaves is breathtaking. I'll try to post. Wish me luck...

**Marty Grass** · 11-11-2018, 10:25 PM

She has a beautiful voice and impressive biography.

Like Emily Remler, she was cut down in her prime, maybe before her full potential.

Thanks for bringing her up. She does jazz, blues and folk amazingly well.

**Marty Grass** · 11-11-2018, 10:34 PM

**snoskier63** · 11-11-2018, 10:42 PM

I started working on her version of Autumn Leaves tonight.

Here is a story ABC news did on her years ago.

**AndyV** · 11-12-2018, 04:42 PM

Such a beautiful musical soul cut down in her prime. Her version of Sting's "Fields of Gold" is stunning. Whether folk, blues, pop or jazz, Eva made it her own.

**Steven Herron** · 11-12-2018, 07:07 PM

And let's not forget Eva's mesmerizing solo rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow that was recorded live at a small night club.

If that doesn't bring tears to your eyes then I'm not sure what will.

**Jonah** · 11-13-2018, 03:57 AM

Her guitar playing is actually really cool... simple but very tasteful and exquisite.

**wengr** · 11-13-2018, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by jaco

I know this forum is about jazz guitarists. But I think we can learn so much from great vocalist phrasing. Her take on Autumn Leaves is breathtaking. I'll try to post. Wish me luck...

I do this version with my duo partner, and it always impresses me how even with two of us, we can't approach the level of musicality here.

**Doctor Jeff** · 11-13-2018, 11:52 AM

Her voice is of course a thing of wonder. I like how she took songs from so many different genres and made them her own.

She was a very good fingerstyle guitar player. Her recordings also feature a lead guitarist Keith Grimes, who was also very tasteful and complemented her the way Anthony Wilson and Russell Malone complement Diana Krall.

**jaco** · 11-13-2018, 12:09 PM

I saw an interview with Sting who talked about he was always getting tapes of musicians that he hadn't time or effort to listen to. One day his wife said "you've got to hear this". It was Eva and he said he was blown away. She had already passed though..

**ESCC** · 11-13-2018, 01:12 PM

"What A Wonderful World" what a beautiful voice!

**Jabberwocky** · 11-18-2018, 01:07 PM

I hate to be that one guy...

There was a time in the 1990s when you could not hear but EVA CASSIDY pouring out of "high priced hifi salons" wherever you may be in the world. Over and over...even at the Winter CESes of the 90s in Las Vegas. It got to a point where the name "Eva Cassidy" elicited an emetic reaction from me...as this thread did. Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing. Where her renderings of "Fields of Gold" and let's not forget "Over the Rainbow" bring tears to some here, they bring out the retch in me. Pass me the barf bag, please.

I am very sorry to learn Eva Cassidy passed too soon. Her CDs sold very very well to audiophiles because they were talked up in the audiophile magazines, Stereophile and The Absolute Sound; but they became forever associated, at least in my ears, with that brigade of audiophile loons. Her CDs are the very apotheosis of Saccharine. Sorry, fellas, I absolutely cannot stand Eva Cassidy, not the person, but those songs...Try playing them on repeat for as long as you can bear.

How come nobody has heard about June Tabor? Now, that is an Irish lady singer I dig because the audiophiles didn't kill her songs by replaying them to death.

**wengr** · 11-18-2018, 01:17 PM

Really like June Tabor, especially when she has Martin Simpson with her.

**Jabberwocky** · 11-18-2018, 01:35 PM

If I am not mistaken, fame found Eva Cassidy a little too late. She had already passed when some guy found her tapes and published them. For someone who was dead, they certainly disinterred a lot of recorded material; there came a string of 3 to 4 CDs after the first one. It was the audiophile community who discovered her and launched her fame to the wider community of listeners. The company that published her first CD was a small audiophile press.

Eva did not mean to be famous posthumously, of course. I don't think fame even meant anything to her when she was alive. But I thought that they milked her recordings for all they were worth. She never enjoyed the money that accrued from those CDs because she was long dead by then.

There is a simple reason why her recordings became a darling of the audiophile loons: being unknown before, she was recorded with the simplest of recording equipment, almost direct to tape with a simple microphone set up and not overproduced to death in a studio. Simple recording techniques result in the best audiophile recordings because the signals are pure and unadulterated with good spatial stereo cues that the ears pick up on.

I know I am mean but overexposure to Eva Cassidy-not her fault at all- means that I cannot abide any mention of her name or her songs without wanting to throw up.

Oh, well, I shoulda checked Wiki, of course: Eva Cassidy - Wikipedia . But I was going on faulty memory and I was partially right about the moneygrubbing part.

**Jonah** · 11-18-2018, 02:00 PM

Itis actually the first time heard Eva Cassidy.. I think any music of that kind being played many times is getting annoying - just because it is still pop... that is it does not contain so much information to keep interest... its impact is superficial... I do nto say it negative, I like a lot of such a music but I am just aware of it.
Mood, temper, character - it is all good of course... People are emotional. But...

Eva's rendition still lhas some kind of special thing it ... not just a nice voice, yjough she is very conventional... she still has something about the songs she sings... phrasing some intonations... very specific.

Thank you for June Tabor... it's very special of course.

**Doctor Jeff** · 11-18-2018, 02:47 PM

Interestingly I was living near where she grew up and lived in the early 90's. She became known for her singing with Chuck Brown, who was quite well known in the Washington area as the Godfather of Go-Go.

I however was not into the local music scene at that time. I think the only shows I saw in the Washington DC area were classical concerts in the 2 years I lived there. So I did not hear about her until I moved away.

It's OK if you don't like her music--to each according to his tastes. When she became well-known I was out of the country, so I was not over-exposed to her music. My favorite song of hers is Songbird. (Unfortunately Christine McVie did not sing that with Fleetwood Mac when I saw them last month.)

I agree with the comment on Wikipedia that the main reason she did not receive so much attention in her lifetime is that she did not allow herself to be pigeonholed or molded by a record label. If she had gone the Star Is Born route she could have been phenomenal.

**AndyV** · 11-18-2018, 03:33 PM

I never heard her on the radio. A friend introduced me so I never felt she was overexposed, at least personally, though I respect your opinion. We like who we like. I'm supposed to revere Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan but would rather have a tooth drilled than listen to either of 'em and don't get me started on Joan Baez's vibrato!

I do think Eva had a purity and directness that came through the mic in a way that connected universally with people. She did not live long enough to be corrupted by the music industry and her story - beauty and purity cut down in its prime by a random and awful disease -resonates with so many people.

**mr. beaumont** · 11-18-2018, 04:59 PM

A beautiful voice, for sure.

She only became known around here after her death. They'd sell her records on commercials, where you had to call an 800 number. It always seemed weird and exploitative.

**Bbmaj7#5#9** · 06-13-2019, 07:40 PM

Her cover of Cyndi Laupers ”Time After Time” is beautiful.

**jimmy b** · 06-19-2019, 09:24 PM

To say "fame" found Eva Cassidy at ANY point during her life or her untimely death is a stretch.
I enjoy her music to this day and invariably, playing one of her CD's when folks are over ALWAYS gets the "Hey, who is this?"

**Marty Grass** · 06-20-2019, 08:38 AM

I knew nothing of Eva until maybe five years ago. With no promotion or expectation, I was floored by her talent.

Jabberwocky has a point here. If I was bombarded by hype about her, it would have annoyed me a lot. Fortunately I had been spared.

Long ago I walked into what I thought was a traditional western. It took me several minutes to realize something was very wrong. That western is Blazing Saddles. Had I known it was a bizarre comedy, it would have had less effect. The same thing happened when I heard Eva. I thought she was some mostly unknown folk singer with perhaps a little talent and style.