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Eva Cassidy

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Eva Cassidy
Birth name	Eva Marie Cassidy
Born	February 2 1963(1963-02-02) Washington, DC
Origin	Maryland, United States
Died	November 2 1996 (aged 33) Bowie, Maryland
Genre(s)	jazz, blues, folk, gospel and pop
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard
Years active	1981 - 1996
Label(s)	Liaison, Eva Music, Blix Street
Associated acts	Chuck Brown, Katie Melua
Website	www.evacassidy.org

Eva Marie Cassidy (February 2, 1963 in Washington, DC – November 2, 1996 in Bowie, Maryland) was an American vocalist described by the British newspaper The Guardian as "one of the greatest voices of her generation." She had a diverse repertoire of jazz, blues, folk, gospel and pop. Cassidy remained virtually unknown outside of her native Washington, DC, when she died of melanoma (which had spread to her bones) in 1996. Her posthumously released recordings have since sold in excess of four million copies, and in early 2001 the compilation album Songbird reached #1 on the United Kingdom album charts.

1 Biography
2 Accompaniment
3 Posthumous recognition and popularity
- 3.1 In the United Kingdom
4 Possibility of future film
5 Quotes
6 Discography
- 6.1 Albums
- 6.2 Singles
7 Videography
8 Sources
9 External links

Biography

Eva Cassidy was the third of four children born to Hugh and Barbara Cassidy. From an early age, she displayed artistic and musical talent. When she was nine years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings. While a student at Bowie High School, she sang with a local band called Stonehenge, and received considerable praise. At the age of eighteen, Cassidy began her professional career, singing and playing guitar in a Washington, D.C., area band, called Easy Street. This band performed in a variety of styles, at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs. During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar, six days per week, at Wild World, in Maryland. Her brother Dan was also a member of this working band. Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with a number of other bands, including the soul and Motown-oriented band The Honeybees, and the techno-pop band Characters Without Names, later called Method Actor. During this period, Cassidy also worked as a propagator at a plant nursery and as a furniture painter in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1986, she met (bassist and recording engineer) Chris Biondo, who encouraged her and helped her find work as a backup singer for various acts. In 1990, Biondo and Cassidy hired the so-called "Eva Cassidy Band", composed of Chris Biondo, Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod, and she began to perform frequently in the Washington area. In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Cassidy's voice for Chuck Brown. Best known as the "Godfather of Go-go", Brown is also a jazz and blues vocalist. This led to the first commercial recording of Cassidy, the duet album with Chuck Brown, The Other Side; which featured performances of classic songs such as "Fever", Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" and Cassidy's signature tune "Over the Rainbow". The album was released and distributed by Liaison Records, the label that also released Brown's Go-go albums. The duet CD attracted the attention of various record companies, but the offers all required Cassidy to pigeonhole herself within a single style (e.g., pop or jazz), something she adamantly refused to do. In 1993 Eva Cassidy was first honored by the Washington area music community when she was awarded two Wammie awards for "Female Vocalist Roots/Traditional R&B" and "Vocalist Jazz/Traditional." The next year she was chosen to perform for the awards ceremony. In January 1996, Cassidy recorded the album Live at Blues Alley, about which The Washington Post later commented that "she could sing anything and make it sound like the only music that mattered". ^[1] Cassidy was unhappy with her singing on the album, because she had a bad cold on the night of the recording; she began recording a studio album which was eventually released as Eva by Heart posthumously in 1997. During a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley CD in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals. The pain persisted, and, a few weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with melanoma. By the time of her diagnosis, the cancer had spread throughout her body. Cassidy's health deteriorated rapidly, and her final performance was in September 1996. At the performance, she had used a walker to reach the stage, sang "What a Wonderful World" in front of an audience of friends, and was subsequently admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Eva Cassidy died on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington Area Music Association.

Accompaniment

During the later part of Eva Cassidy's performing and recording career, she was accompanied by a core group of musicians:

Keith Grimes - guitar
Lenny Williams - keyboard
Chris Biondo - bass
Raice McLeod - drums

Posthumous recognition and popularity

In the United Kingdom

In 1998, a compilation of tracks from Cassidy's three released recordings was assembled into the CD Songbird. This CD lingered in obscurity for a few years until being given airplay on BBC Radio Two by presenter Terry Wogan following recommendation by his producer Paul Walters. In 2001, her album reached number 1 in the UK charts after the BBC television show Top Of The Pops 2 aired a video of Eva performing Over The Rainbow at Blues Alley. It became the most requested video ever shown of Top Of The Pops 2 despite the fact it was just a homemade video made by somebody watching Eva perform. The Songbird CD also achieved significant chart success throughout Europe and has achieved gold status in the United States.
- This Terry Wogan thing is starting to get on my nerves. In the late 90s I worked in a record shop called Roots Music in Sunderland. We concentrated on folk, blues, jazz, country etc and orderd a large box of stuff from USA every week. The company we ordered from put promo's in with our order and I listened to them to see if there was anything we wanted. On one such occasion there was a Eva Cassidy's 'Songbird' ~ I didn't like the material but thought her voice was great. I played it to some customers who thought it was great and we ordered up some. We sold out in days. At the same time it was my job to create a top ten list for the Mike Harding Folk On Two show on Radio 2. We put 'Songbird' at the top one wek and faxed it off, and lo and behold they rang straight back to ask about her and we sent them a CD. That week Harding played 3 tracks in the chart rundown, an accolade never given to anyone else. It became a favourite on Harding's show and we then found out that the album was actually available in the UK through Hot Records in Brighton. They had never had a platfrom for the release before and prety soon they were able to get the CD stocked in Virgin, HMV etc for which I recieved a thanks from Red Hot. The producer of Hardings show passes the CD onto Wogan and the rest is history.

However, at the very least Mike Harding should be credited for it and I'd like to see myself mentioned as well ~ Mike Ollier.

Since then, several CDs have been released: Time After Time (2000) and Imagine (2002) and "American Tune" (2003). In 2001 a book entitled Songbird was released in the UK on the life and work of Cassidy, based on interviews with close family and associates. The hardcover edition has since sold in excess of 100,000 copies. A U.S. edition (softcover, published by Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Group USA) was released in late 2003 and included additional chapters.
Sting, the songwriter for "Fields of Gold", was reportedly ^[2] moved to tears when he heard Cassidy's version of his song.
In March 2001, ABC's Nightline in the United States broadcast a well-received^[3] short documentary about Eva Cassidy, written and narrated by Dave Marash and produced by Madhulika Sikka. A similar broadcast occurred on ITV's Tonight with Trevor McDonald in Great Britain in May 2001.
In 2002, figure skater Michelle Kwan skated to Eva's recording of "Fields of Gold" at the Winter Olympics gala, and later on tour during the northern summer of 2002. Michelle's contribution to "Fields of Gold" was so significant that Cassidy's record label awarded Michelle a gold record for making "Fields of Gold" a household song in 2002.
Later in the year Olympic Gold Medalist Kristi Yamaguchi skated to Eva's rendition of John Lennon's "Imagine."
Eva's performance of "Kathy's Song" can be heard in the feature film Maid in Manhattan which was released in 2002 as well. This version was used at the suggestion of the song's writer Paul Simon.
Another film soundtrack to feature Eva's singing was 2002's The Man from Elysian Fields starring Mick Jagger and Andy Garcia.
In the first season of Smallville at the end of the episode "Crush", Eva Cassidy's cover of Cyndi Lauper's song "Time After Time" is featured in a moving funeral scene.
In 2003, Anglo-Georgian singer Katie Melua released her song "Faraway Voice", in memory of Cassidy. She has also performed Eva's arrangement of "Anniversary Song" in concert. On Christmas Eve 2006 BBC1 aired a programme of "impossible duets" in which she duetted with Eva on Over The Rainbow.
In 2003, American Tune became Eva's third consecutive #1 album in the UK. No other recording artist in popular music history has been able to match this posthumous success, including Elvis Presley or Jimi Hendrix.
Eva's song Songbird was featured in the feature film Love Actually which was released in the autumn of 2003.
Irish singer Chris De Burgh has stated in concert that his song "Songbird" from his album The Road to Freedom was written in honor of Eva Cassidy.
In 2004, singer Mary Chapin Carpenter made poignant reference to Eva Cassidy in her song "My Heaven" on the album Between Here and Gone: "More memories than my heart can hold, when Eva's singing Fields of Gold."
Olympic Gold Medalist Sarah Hughes skated to "Over the Rainbow" during the "Smuckers Stars on Ice" tour, and World Champion Kimmie Meissner, a teenager from Maryland, also chose "Over the Rainbow" at the exhibition gala following the World Championships.
In 2006 Eva's voice was heard on another movie soundtrack when her "Over the Rainbow" opened the film Alpha Dog.
In season 5 (2006) of the TV show American Idol, the runner up, Katharine McPhee, sang a song chosen by Simon Cowell. He chose Eva Cassidy's 1996 unique rendition of "Over the Rainbow" for McPhee. Jackson was blown away, calling her "a hot one," and declaring that she had the best song of the season. Abdul was also impressed, saying that song was her "element." Cowell said that he was very happy for McPhee and, putting the fact that he chose the song aside, he thought it was the best performance of the competition to date. He also added that it was brilliant.
In 2006, on the The X Factor (UK), Leona Lewis sang Eva's version of Over the Rainbow. Simon Cowell commented saying, "That was the single best performance I have ever witnessed".
In 2007, on the TV show America's Got Talent, Julienne Irwin sang Cassidy's rendition of "Over the Rainbow."
In 2007, on the TV show 'So You Think You Can Dance (season 3)', a contemporary dance was choreographed to 'Fields of Gold'.
In 2007 on The X Factor (UK), Niki Evans sung two of her songs- "Songbird" and "Fields of Gold". Both performances were well liked by the judges.
In December 2007, a duet of Eva's "What A Wonderful World" with new vocals by Katie Melua was released exclusively at the Tesco chain and debuted at #1 on the UK Singles chart on December 16. All profits from the single go to the Red Cross.^[4]

Possibility of future film

In an nbc4.com interview, her parents mention the possibility of a future film, with Kirsten Dunst or Emily Watson as suggested possible actresses who could play their daughter. The Cassidys said they have shown their tapes to several producers, and hope for a documentary first, then a feature. ^[5] AIR Productions is planning on producing a film on Cassidy's life. It is being produced by Amy Redford (daughter of Robert Redford), Irwin Shpiro and Rick Singer.^[6]^[7]

Quotes

"She could sing anything . . . and make it sound like it was the only music that mattered." -- Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, Nov. 17, 1996 ^[8]
“Eva Cassidy’s is the most remarkable posthumous career trajectory in pop music history.” -- Daily Telegraph ^[9]

Discography

Albums

The Other Side (1992) with Chuck Brown
Live at Pearl's (1994) - Only Eva Cassidy bootleg known to exist
Eva by Heart (1997) - Eva's only studio album
Live at Blues Alley (1997)
Songbird (1998) - A compilation of tracks from the previous three albums - UK #01
Time After Time (2000) UK #25
No Boundaries (2000)
Method Actor (2002)
Imagine (2002) UK #1
American Tune (2003) UK #1
Wonderful World (2004) - A compilation of tracks from her previous five albums - UK #11

Singles

"Over the Rainbow" (2001) UK #42
"Take My Breath Away" (2003) UK #54
"What a Wonderful World" (duet with Katie Melua) (2007) UK #01

Videography

Eva Cassidy Sings (2004) - A single-camera video recorded at Blues Alley the same nights as the live album in January 1996.
Mary Ann Redmond & Eva Cassidy Singing Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" (1995) - From a performance at Fleetwood's in Alexandria, VA (Mary Ann Redmond's site)