Cassandra Wilson’s Tribute to Davis Lacks His Passion

The story of the emperor’s new clothes kept coming to mind during Cassandra Wilson’s concert at the Wiltern Theatre.

Listening to her take on Miles Davis’ music in a performance that promised so much and delivered so little made one wonder what was stuffing the ears of the jazz media who have given her such complimentary responses for this project. Wilson has done impressive work in the past, especially when she was associated with producer Craig Street. But her Tuesday night performance was all manner and attitude, with a minimal amount of substance. Very simply, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein as well as the Eemperor, there wasn’t much there, there.

Part of the problem traced to the fact that Wilson’s perception of Davis--apparent in the performance as well as in her new Blue Note album, “Traveling Miles”--seems to have something to do with a notion of coolness and detachment. That’s a notion that might fit well into Wilson’s musical scheme of things, but it doesn’t have much to do with Davis, whose supposedly “cool” moments always simmered with inner heat and passion. And the only real heat and passion associated with this performance--which included renderings of such Davis-associated pieces as “Seven Steps to Heaven” and “ESP”--were provided by the impressive seven-piece ensemble accompanying Wilson.

Further complicating the problem, Wilson’s monochromatic tone and tendency to mumble words did not fit at all well into a venue the size of the Wiltern, especially when the audio system couldn’t seem to provide any definition for her voice. On the few passages in which she broke through her lethargic qualities, she revealed that she does indeed have the capacity to sing with a highly personal sound and solid, rhythmic phrasing. But they were too few and too far between, almost always surpassed by her apparent focus upon the presentation rather than the music.

Given those circumstances, it was probably just as well that Wilson allocated an inordinate amount of space to her musicians, all of whom delivered in sterling fashion. Among the highlights, the guitar work of Adam Rogers and (especially) Marvin Sewell was continuously compelling; Monte Croft played doubled on piano, vibes and harmonica, all with smooth fluency; drummer Marcus Baylor and percussionist Jeff Haynes handled the array of different rhythms with ease; and bassist Lonnie Plaxico, Wilson’s music director, drove everything forward with an urgent sense of swing.