Passages

[hearthesilence]

Cassandra Wilson, one of the most celebrated jazz vocalists of the past 40 years. She also attained a level of popularity that perhaps none of her peers matched without resorting to a diluted (i.e. bland and dull) form of music that barely showed any of the improvisatory mastery she was capable of and never sacrificed in her work.

She makes a prominent appearance in Ken Burns’s otherwise uneven and deeply flawed Jazz, made cameos in a couple of Hollywood films (Junior and The Score where Robert De Niro's character owned a jazz club) and she was once married to Isaach de Bankolé during the early 2000s. I won’t go into the political controversies that erupted on her social media accounts - quite a shock to many of her fans - but the outpouring of tributes from the jazz community show the depth and durability of her friendships, a testament to not only her artistry but her personality as well.

These days, I listen mostly to her earlier work from her first decade of recording. (One reason her death is a shock is that I didn’t realize she was already pushing 40 by the time she had her breakthrough into mainstream stardom.) Blue Skies is probably her best album as a traditional jazz vocalist covering the standards, but she didn’t stop there and really made her name with Blue Light 'til Dawn and above all New Moon Daughter.

[Aunt Peg]

Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 94, French director/write probably best known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) which I do think it the best screen adaptation Edmond Rostand's play to date: https://deadline.com/2026/09/jean-paul- ... 237065181/

[Lemmy Caution]

Ando & I had a little discussion/appreciation of Cassandra Wilson a few years back in this general music listening thread. Might be useful for folks not terribly familiar with her output and legacy. A truly brilliant singer.

I was supposed to see Cassandra Wilson perform in Shanghai circa 2010, but she cancelled. Word filtered back that her mom was ill. My biggest disappointment/missed chance of seeing a great performer since Fats Domino cancelled a NYC Bottom Line performance in 1989 or so (we ended up seeing Big Jay McNeely that night instead). Unfortunately 21st C Shanghai didn't offer such quality backup options.

[Caligula]

Cassandra Wilson - quite a shock.

Listen to her cover of Robert Johnson's Come On In My Kitchen - it is for me one of the sexiest pieces of music I have ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMx42mY67c0

[Orlac]

Hong Kong legend Chen Kuan-tai - https://cityonfire.com/chen-kuan-tai-ma ... way-at-80/

[colinr0380]

Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 94, French director/write probably best known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) which I do think it the best screen adaptation Edmond Rostand's play to date: https://deadline.com/2026/09/jean-paul- ... 237065181/

One of the writers on Louis Malle's Zazie dans le Metro as well. On a similar note of playful adaptations of French, Cyrano de Bergerac of course notably had Anthony Burgess do the English subtitle translation of the rhyming couplets of the original dialogue, because of his previous experience with the play in the theatre.

The other film Rappeneau film that got a lot of play in the late 90s on UK television (though similarly to Cyrano de Bergerac has not appeared for a couple of decades at this point) was his follow up period drama, 1995's The Horseman on the Roof

[Captain Paranoia]

Gloria Steinem