Traveling Miles Cassandra Wilson

It's a beautiful, impressionistic tribute to Miles Davis which extends Wilson's eclectic "folk jazz" approach, itself owing a great deal to Miles' 80s music. Wilson, as producer, should take much of the credit for the coherence of vision. The quintet behind her on Resurrection Blues is entirely different to the one on the following track, Sky and Sea - but the tracks fit together like fine joinery. The core band and all of the guests are superb, as is the production. Everything is crystal clear, but warm.

Cassandra Wilson continues to move down a highly eclectic path on Belly of the Sun, the somewhat belated follow-up to Traveling Miles. While displaying a jazz singer's mastery of melodic nuance and improvisatory phrasing, Wilson draws on a variety of non-jazz idioms – roots music, rock, Delta blues, country, soul – to create a kind of earthy, intelligent pop with obvious crossover appeal. Her core band includes guitarists Marvin Sewell and Kevin Breit, who blend marvelously, Sewell mostly on mellow acoustic and Breit adding atmospheric touches on electric, 12-string, and slide guitars, as well as mandolin, banjo, and even bouzouki.

Cassandra Wilson continues to move down a highly eclectic path on Belly of the Sun, the somewhat belated follow-up to Traveling Miles. While displaying a jazz singer's mastery of melodic nuance and improvisatory phrasing, Wilson draws on a variety of non-jazz idioms – roots music, rock, Delta blues, country, soul – to create a kind of earthy, intelligent pop with obvious crossover appeal.