Sings Standards

1	Polka Dots and Moonbeams 5:45
2	I Wished on the Moon 3:33
3	'Round Midnight 5:57
4	Angel 4:39
5	I've Grown Accustomed to His Face 5:14
6	Chelsea Bridge 6:30
7	I'm Old Fashioned 3:06
8	Baubles, Bangles and Beads 6:36
9	Blue Skies 3:09
10	Blue in Green 4:09
11	Body and Soul 10:39

Barnes & Noble

Cassandra Wilson has made a career in recent years out of interpreting atypical fare for a “jazz” singer. So her latter-day fans don’t bat an eye when she covers the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville,” Bob Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm,” or Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” -- as far as Wilson’s concerned, it’s all grist for the mill. But it wasn’t always this way. While the bona fide jazz standard is now a relatively rare occurrence on her recent albums, Wilson used to do her share of classic material, the myriad standards that make up the traditional repertoire of most jazz vocalists, invariably adding her own distinct touch to each of these songs and bringing fingerprint individuality to them. This finely chosen collection will be an eye-opener for your basic Wilson fan circa, say, 2000. Here are nearly a dozen gorgeous versions of gorgeous songs; gems including “Body and Soul” and “I Wished on the Moon,” as well as tunes that started life as jazz instrumentals and were later transformed into durable songs, including Thelonious Monk’s “ 'Round Midnight,” Bill Evans’s “Blue in Green,” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge.” Wilson takes these chestnuts and through her own deeply personal interpretations gives them new legs to run with. If Wilson is more interested these days in widening the repertoire for jazz singers, it’s not for any lack of expertise on her part. Sings Standards proves that she had already firmly mastered the core material. William Pearl

All Music Guide

Cassandra Wilson is ostensibly a jazz singer, but more often than not crosses the creative line between folk, pop, and jazz. This collection of previously released tracks features Wilson on various jazz standards giving one a nice view of Wilson as simply a jazz vocalist. While this is in no way a "must have" for fans of the much lauded singer, it is a nice place for jazz aficionados to begin listening to this singular artist. Matt Collar