American singer Eva Cassidy died in late 1996 at the age of 33 from melanoma, a fatal form of skin cancer. She had already recorded several albums by then and was fast becoming a household name in her home state of Washington DC. Her powerful voice and her varied choice of repertoire generated enthusiastic reactions in jazz, folk and pop circles. In Europe the ball started rolling when the BBC
… started spinning its music. As an extension of this, the hard-to-obtain albums from the early years are now also released with us and they show once again how unfortunate it is that her career had to end so suddenly. The album Live At Blues Alley contains recordings from early 1996 and contrary to what the title suggests, Eva and her band mainly play jazz standards such as Cheek To Cheek, Blue Skies (both written by Irving Berlin) and Fine And Mellow (Billie Holliday). She also makes successful trips to blues (Stormy Monday), soul (People Get Ready by Curtis Mayfield) and pop (Fields Of Gold by Sting). (MvP) _more