Cassandra Wilson - Silver Pony (2010) [FLAC]

Posted By: two-on

Date: Nov. 30, 2010

Vocalist Cassandra Wilson long ago attained the happy position where it was unnecessary to tell her followers that a new album was good. The fact it is a Cassandra Wilson album is recommendation enough. Since her Blue Note debut in 1993, she has been in a rich vein of form – and now Silver Pony continues that run.

The album’s special feature is that it contains live material, the first from Wilson since her 1991 Live album. Recordings from a European tour are seamlessly blended with recordings made at Piety Street Studios, New Orleans – the applause is all that helps tell them apart. Silver Pony includes live versions of three tracks featured on Wilson’s 2008 Grammy-winning album, Loverly.

The choice of material is typically eclectic, including original compositions, old blues songs, standards and pop songs. Who else could sandwich Stevie Wonder’s romantic If It’s Magic between blues classics associated with Charlie Patton and Muddy Waters, and make it sound like an obvious, natural sequence?

As ever, whatever the material, Wilson’s smooth but husky-toned vocals are highly distinctive, especially when combined with a delivery that savours every word while remaining loose and languid. Her reading of St James Infirmary is textbook jazz singing, as she plays with the rhythm, stretching some lines and foreshortening others.

Such prowess has sometimes meant Wilson’s musicians have been rather overshadowed. Silver Pony remedies that situation, allowing them at least as much room as the vocalist. Guitarist Marvin Sewell, pianist Jonathan Batiste, bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Herlin Riley and percussionist Lekan Babalola demonstrate that they are a tight, funky band able to adapt to the breadth of styles required of them. Led by Sewell’s slide guitar, they transform Patton’s Saddle Up My Pony/Pony Blues into a rhythmic groove full of attention-grabbing instrumental details.

A Night in Seville is a straight instrumental, with Wilson herself playing synthesiser. It segues into the band composition Silver Moon, which has an atmospheric saxophone solo from guest Ravi Coltrane. Sunrise includes another guest, John Legend, in a touching duet with Wilson. It suggests a duo album would make a successful future project. ~John Eyles, BBC review, 23 Nov 2010)

Titles:
01. Lover Come Back To Me (Hammerstein/Romberg) [06:51]
02. St. James Infirmary (Traditional) [07:12]
03. A Night in Seville (Wilson/Sewell/Veal/Riley/Batiste/Babalola) [03:00]
04. Silver Moon (Wilson/Sewell/Veal/Riley/Batiste/Babalola) [06:41]
05. Pony Blues (Patton) [09:32]
06. If It’s Magic (Wonder) [04:34]
07. Forty Days and Forty Nights (Roth) [04:58]
08. Silver Pony (Wilson/Sewell/Veal/Riley/Batiste/Babalola) [00:36]
09. A Day in the Life of a Fool [Manhã de Carnaval] (Bonfá/Sigman) [07:35]
10. Blackbird (Lennon/McCartney) [06:43]
11. Sunrise (Laird/Jones/Stephens) [03:32]
Artists:
* Cassandra Wilson - vocals, synthesizer
* Marvin Sewell - electric guitar
* Reginald Veal - electric bass
* Herlin Riley - drums
* Lekan Babalola - percussion

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 24. November 2010, 14:15

Cassandra Wilson / Silver Pony

Used drive : Optiarc DVD+-RW AD-7640A Adapter: 0 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -V -8 -T "artist=%a" -T "title=%t" -T "album=%g" -T "date=%y" -T "tracknumber=%n" -T "genre=%m" %s

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:51.03 | 0 | 30827
2 | 6:51.03 | 7:14.42 | 30828 | 63419
3 | 14:05.45 | 3:00.13 | 63420 | 76932
4 | 17:05.58 | 6:39.20 | 76933 | 106877
5 | 23:45.03 | 9:32.01 | 106878 | 149778
6 | 33:17.04 | 4:34.25 | 149779 | 170353
7 | 37:51.29 | 4:59.70 | 170354 | 192848
8 | 42:51.24 | 0:36.44 | 192849 | 195592
9 | 43:27.68 | 7:35.52 | 195593 | 229769
10 | 51:03.45 | 6:46.00 | 229770 | 260219
11 | 57:49.45 | 3:31.41 | 260220 | 276085

Track 1

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\01 - Lover Come Back to Me.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 99.8 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC ACB3C55D
Copy CRC ACB3C55D
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [5F8470EE]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\02 - Went Down to St. James Infirmary.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2935378E
Copy CRC 2935378E
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [6FD46334]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\03 - A Night in Seville.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.27

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 26948E22
Copy CRC 26948E22
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [36CD3E3A]
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\04 - Beneath a Silver Moon.wav

Peak level 98.1 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 79B19E28
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [ECD200B0]
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\05 - Saddle Up My Pony.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 9E862F0A
Copy CRC 9E862F0A
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [4E21B7C4]
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\06 - It It's Magic.wav

Peak level 85.6 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A67691F2
Copy CRC A67691F2
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [3160EE2B]
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\07 - Forty Days and Forty Nights.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CFC9DE27
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [FDBD2D89]
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\08 - Silver Pony.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.04

Peak level 99.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 20940051
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [C1A43DFA]
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\09 - A Day in the Life of a Fool.wav

Peak level 99.7 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 39877061
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [3CB72204]
Copy OK

Track 10

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\10 - Blackbird.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C8A85F50
Copy CRC C8A85F50
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [3D2C3CBF]
Copy OK

Track 11

Filename C:\Users\isaac\Music\what.cd\Cassandra Wilson - 2010 - Silver Pony[FLAC]\11 - Watch the Sunrise.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:04.64

Peak level 89.2 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC D221BCD8
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [1341EF7D]
Copy OK

All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report