NIGHTBIRD-EVA
CASSIDY'S 'COMPLETE BLUES ALLEY'
20TH
ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION ARRIVES
DECEMBER
11 IN THE U.S. FROM BLIX STREET RECORDS
RE-MASTERED
TWO-CD SET FEATURES 12 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED RECORDINGS, INCLUDING
8
NEVER-BEFORE-HEARD SONGS
PERFORMED
BY THE LATE SINGER
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ONE
NIGHT, ONE TAKE (JANUARY 3, 1996)
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"She possessed a
silken soprano voice with a wide and seemingly effortless range, unerring
pitch and a gift for phrasing that at times was heart-stoppingly
eloquent." --The New York Times
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Eva Cassidy, the late singer whose signature version of
"Over the Rainbow" underscored the In Memoriam portion of the 2015 Emmy
broadcast, is remembered in NIGHTBIRD-a
two-CD set that affords everyone the opportunity to experience Eva's tour de force performance
at the Blues Alley jazz club in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 1996.
Arriving on December
11, the double CD version will be followed several weeks
later by the release of a four-LP gatefold heavyweight vinyl album.
The Blues Alley performances were recorded for what was to
become the only solo Eva Cassidy album released during her lifetime. The
original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album (first released locally in D.C. during the
spring of 1996) only included 12 of the 31 songs recorded that night.
20 years later, the remastered NIGHTBIRD includes all 31 songs she
performed that night, among them 12 previously unreleased recordings and 8
never-before-heard songs performed by the late singer. Eva's wide musical
range is showcased in songs such as "Nightbird," "Blue
Skies," "Son Of A Preacher Man," "Route 66,"
"Late In The Evening," "Baby I Love You" and
"Caravan."
Blix Street's UK label is releasing NIGHTBIRD as a
limited edition 2-CD plus bonus DVD package, as well as a 4-LP gatefold
heavyweight vinyl package that also includes the 2-CD and DVD package on
November 13. The accompanying PAL-format
DVD will contain 12 video performances recorded during the Blues Alley
concert.
After cashing in a small pension from her job at a tree nursery
to pay for the recording of the Blues Alley appearance, Eva and her
band-bassist Chris Biondo, pianist Lenny Williams, lead guitarist Keith
Grimes and drummer Raice McLeod-took to the Blues Alley stage with modest
hopes.
"We thought we'd get airplay and sell a thousand copies so
Eva could put some money toward a PA system," explains Biondo in the
upcoming documentary, One
Night That Changed Everything that celebrates the Blues Alley
20th anniversary. (NOTE: In the film by British television director Attracta
McLaughlin, Eva's band revisits the Blues Alley venue to view performance
videos from the night with then and now perspectives).
Nobody imagined that the audio and video recordings captured
that night would prove to be the foundation of Eva Cassidy's unparalleled
posthumous international success. Many of Eva's included signature
interpretations recorded that night have become fan-favorites, including
"Fields Of Gold," "People Get Ready," "Ain't No
Sunshine," "What A Wonderful World" and "Autumn Leaves."
Blues Alley footage of Eva performing "Over The
Rainbow" propelled Eva's SONGBIRD album to the top of the UK album chart
in 2001, after it was broadcast (and re-broadcast following a wave of phone
calls, emails and letters from viewers) on Top of the Pops2 on BBC2. The UK
chart-topper fueled a feeding frenzy within the U.S. media, including a half
hour piece on ABC News
Nightline that was rebroadcast three additional times in the
ensuing years.
By the end of 2001, SONGBIRD had been certified triple-platinum
in England (for sales of more than 900,000) and Gold in the U.S. (more than
500,000 units); the album, now six times platinum in England and platinum in
the U.S., eventually hit No. 1 on Billboard's
Internet Albums chart and topped the publication's Pop Catalog survey for 32
weeks.
Subsequent releases include: TIME AFTER TIME (2000); two
additional U.K. chart toppers, IMAGINE(2002) and AMERICAN TUNE (2003)--in the
U.S., the former climbed to No. 1 on Billboard's
Independent Albums survey, the latter to No. 5--the 2004 compilation
WONDERFUL WORLD; SOMEWHERE (2008); SIMPLY EVA (2011), an album of alternative
Eva-only guitar and vocal performances; and THE BEST OF EVA CASSIDY, in 2012.
Now comes NIGHTBIRD,
the complete Blues Alley album, which includes all 31 songs recorded on the
night of January 3, 1996.
The NIGHTBIRD
album concludes with Eva's studio recording of "Oh, Had I A Golden
Thread," also a bonus track on the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album.
On first listen to the Blues Alley recordings Eva was disappointed. She had
been suffering from a cold and thought her singing below par. Fortunately for
music lovers everywhere, once she heard the final mixes, Eva was persuaded by
her band-mates to allow the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album to be
released--with one condition--that the album end with "Oh, Had I A
Golden Thread," a performance she was particularly proud of.
The night of January 3, 1996 proved to be the high point of Eva
Cassidy's tragically short career as a performer... and the beginning of her
legendary posthumous career as a recording artist. Within 10 months of Blues
Alley she was gone, having been diagnosed with melanoma by mid-year.
Bill Straw, president of Eva's posthumous label, independent
Blix Street Records, heard the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY album in late September
of 1996, shortly before Eva died. "By the time I finished listening to
the album, I had heard one of the best singers ever," he recalls.
"I knew she was going to be famous, but also knew she would not live to
enjoy it. I drove around listening to Eva's music for months before finally
contacting her parents about marketing their daughter's music."
A year following Cassidy's untimely passing, Blix Street (then
in LA, now in the Seattle area) entered into an agreement with her parents
Hugh and Barbara Cassidy to compile and market the singer's catalogue. In
1998, Blix Street initially released SONGBIRD (a collection of tracks from
the original LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and the EVA BY HEART studio albums, plus
"Over the Rainbow" from the 1992 THE OTHER SIDE duet album with
Chuck Brown). Later that year, Blix Street re-issued LIVE AT BLUES
ALLEY and EVA BY HEART, which had been released locally by Eva's parents in
late 1997, a year following Eva's passing.
SONGBIRD received immediate critical acclaim in various markets
around the world. Sales grew steadily in the U.S., U.K. and Australia,
but it took almost three years to reach a tipping point. In December, 2000,
NPR included an Eva Cassidy segment on the Morning
Edition radio program in America (and within minutes five Eva
Cassidy albums soared to the top 5 positions of the Amazon US Pop Chart) and
the Top of the Pops2
television program in England aired Eva's "Over the Rainbow"
performance video from Blues Alley, sending SONGBIRD to the top of the British
album charts in March, 2001.
Compiling the 31 Blues Alley performances into one NIGHTBIRD
album was a daunting task for Straw. "I have had the privilege of
compiling eight Eva Cassidy albums, beginning with SONGBIRD. In each
instance, the luxury of Eva's considerable catalogue, from various sources,
served the basic premise that less
is more. The challenge of an album containing 31 tracks is the
polar opposite...would more
be less?
Fortunately, more turned out to be much
more. The first listening to all 31 tracks in one sitting was an
inspiring experience. Beginning at Capitol Records in the late 60's, I had
heard out-takes from the best of the best...but had never before heard
anything that approached the sheer consistent vocal excellence of these 31 one-take,
all on one night, performances."
* * * * *
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NIGHTBIRD, the
'Complete Blues Alley' 20th Anniversary Collection will be released on
December 11 on Blix Street Records. The tracks are:
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Eva Cassidy performs "Nightbird," the title track of
the new album, during the Blues Alley concert on January 3, 1996:
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Pre-order at www.amazon.com
Visit: www.blixstreet.com
For media information
and music, contact:
Sharon Weisz, W3 Public
Relations
w3pr@yahoo.com
323-934-2700
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