Revive Premiere: Cassandra Wilson's Unveils A Searing Take On Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"

Lucky for all of us, Mississippi-bred jazz singer Cassandra Wilson is having a busy year. Setting her sights on the timeless music of Billie Holiday, Wilson recently ran a successful crowdfunding campaign that will turn her love for Lady Day into a full-length album tribute of cover recordings. That news is a windfall, not just for jazz-lovers but music fans of all tastes, as Wilson's deep and powerful voice is beyond beautiful to behold. The project has been dubbed Coming Forth by Day and will hit stores and digital shelves on April 7th--what would have been Billie's 100th birthday.

But thankfully we don't have to wait until April to hear Wilson take some vintage Holiday material out for a joyride. Yesterday our cohorts over at Revive Music debuted the album's first single, the deeply moving "Strange Fruit." Originally penned as a poem by a teacher, Abel Meeropol, in 1937, the song's eulogizing of black lynching victims was made famous by Holiday's performance and has since been revisited as a parable of modern police brutality.

Wilson's recording of "Strange Fruit" is distinctly modern and dramatic; bright engineering brings out each instrument clearly, and dense strings push her own vocal performance into a painful, yet breathtaking, breaking point. It's an incredibly powerful release off what's sure to be a brilliant jazz record. Read more about Wilson over at Revive, and pre-order Coming Forth by Day on iTunes here.