Early in last night's set at The Birchmere, jazz vocalist par excellence Cassandra Wilson announced that she was on tour despite not having an album to support (in fact she has released thirteen albums during her stellar career). As a result, last night's audience was witness to a lighthearted and informal evening of music that was as much jam session as it was a concert. Wilson and her first-rate band came out without a set list and regaled the capacity crowd with nearly two hours of spirited music. While the lack of structure led to some looseness on stage, the relaxed atmosphere and wonderful playing more than made up for it, despite a poor sound system's best efforts at ruining the proceedings.

Wilson's expressive voice has an earthiness and richness to it that evokes the blues traditions of her native Mississippi. Her sense of phrasing is unequaled and she has the ability to stretch and contract each line in such a way that her vocals become part of the band rather than something that lays on top of its accompaniment. It is no surprise that someone with such a high degree of musicianship would surround herself with top notch musicians. Last night her group was made up of Cyrus Chestnut on piano and Fender Rhodes, Wynton Marsalis alum Herlin Riley on drums, journeyman bassist Reginald Veal, the versatile Marvin Sewell on acoustic and electric guitar, and tasteful percussionist Lekan Babalola.

As was evident in last night's show, Wilson has a strong commitment to tradition but is not beholden to the past. Too many contemporary jazz vocalists spend their careers trying to sound like the singers of yore, whether it be Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, or Betty Carter. Her music does not fit into any single genre because she draws equally from traditional blues, jazz, African, Latin, and R&B influences. Even when she performs standards, she is likely to put a unique spin on it that respects the source material but adds a contemporary twist. It is clear that Wilson has spent a great deal of time studying the music of the past, but she is blazing her own trail and is therefore a "modern" jazz musician in the truest sense of the word.

Image taken from Cassandra Wilson's MySpace page

While the band did all it could to deliver a strong performance, the poor sound quality almost undermined its efforts. During the quiet moments of the set, of which there were many, the buzz coming out of the P.A. speakers was very distracting. Chestnut's masterful intro to "Can't Take That Away from Me" was almost lost due to the extraneous noise. The Birchmere hosts well-respected acts and charged $50 for last night's performance. We expect such a venue to deliver high quality sound and the folks who run The Birchmere should be embarrassed by the sound at last night's concert.

The band still delivered an outstanding performance and its willingness to mix things up was on display throughout the set. "Sweet Georgia Brown" was transformed into groovin' R&B while Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" featured a soulful guitar/vocal duet. Wilson and Co. went country by turning "Wichita Lineman," a country-pop hit for Glen Campbell, and the Willie Nelson classic, "Crazy," into smokey ballads. The band also did its fair share of straight ahead jazz with charged renditions of "Can't Take That Away from Me" and "Them There Eyes."

At one point Wilson told the audience, "I've been singing a lot of the blues because it's not being taken seriously in our culture." Her devotion is true and she was at her most passionate when interpreting the traditional blues. The set included an intense performance of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Easy Rider," which started as a very mellow tune and slowly built to an almost orgasmic climax. The band's take of the Robert Johnson classic, "Dust My Broom," not only exemplified its commitment to the blues, but also its genre-blending approach to music making. The standard was set to a 6/8 afro-cuban drumset and hand drum pattern with a funky bass line. Guitarist Sewell shined with his traditional slide guitar playing and the jazzy stylings of Chestnut and Wilson were thrown into the musical gumbo. There was literally a century's worth of musical tradition crammed into this one song, and that was the truly amazing part of the show. Without even realizing it, we were the recipients of a musical history lesson disguised as a concert.