‘Eva Cassidy with a cold is still better than any healthy singer’

2 November 2021 marked the 25th anniversary of Eva Cassidy’s death. In the Radio 1 studio, Patrick Lodiers spoke to Johan Bakker, the author of the Eva Cassidy biography.

You can watch the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTXTvf1wrZk

Eva Cassidy’s velvety voice makes the classic ‘Autumn Leaves’ feel even more autumnal. Today marks 25 years since the passing of the woman who, sadly, only became famous after her death. Joining me at the table is her biographer and co-founder of the world’s only Eva Cassidy fan club, music journalist Johan Bakker.

Johan, when you hear this ‘Autumn Leaves’, what happens to you?

‘All sorts of things. I’ve just seen the footage and I know this recording is from 1996. So it was the same year she passed away. It was a recording at Blues Alley, a jazz club in Washington DC, where she was playing. She recorded an album, and one of the sad things about that album, Live at Blues Alley, is that they didn’t include all the songs she played that evening on the album because she didn’t think she was good enough that night.

‘But that’s all about her, and we’ll talk about that in detail. But I’m also curious as to why it affects you so much. What is it?’

‘It’s that voice, and you can tell from her voice that she means it. She takes things to heart; she really does see the autumn leaves falling, and then she turns that into this rendition of the song, and you realise: she’s genuinely sad when those autumn leaves fall. She suffered from seasonal affective disorder, and she saw it all coming – and those are just the sort of things that make you think: that’s spot on. When you hear her sing, you realize that she was genuinely concerned about the things around her.

‘A lovely example – because she actually always sang covers – is ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting. It is a lovely song in its own right, but when she sings it, it’s immediately in a league of its own, isn’t it?’

‘It’s very different from the original version. That was the strength of her covers: she never just imitated someone else, because she made something different of it. The strongest example of that is probably ‘Over the Rainbow’, because there’s a huge leap in it. For the experts: an octave leap, and she simply leaves that out. So she just sings the same note twice. She adapted the songs to suit her, and in many cases she improved them too. It’s said that Sting has remarked that he prefers this version to his own. The question is whether he’s just saying that because he’s a very nice guy.’

‘It’s simply true!’

‘She turned it into a completely different song. They’re both very beautiful.’

‘You’re the only one who wrote a biography about her. What’s more, it is an award-winning biography! Eva Cassidy died of cancer at the age of 33, but was there any other tragedy in her life?’

‘The tragedy actually began quite early on, because she was bullied at school. And that was also the reason she became rather withdrawn during her secondary school years. She would stay in her room for hours on end. But that, in turn, led to her immersing herself deeply in music – all kinds of music. She loved jazz, folk, gospel – and she listened to all those great singers: Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others, and she would try to imitate them. So by withdrawing into her room on her own – which in itself is rather sad – she could give the world all those beautiful songs.’

‘Of course, she had that beautiful voice, that golden voice, and what you say about her interpretation is remarkable, but why did you think: ‘This life story needs to be told, I’m going to write a book about it’?

‘Unfortunately, there are many singers who die at a young age. That often has to do with a miserable life, in the sense that they abuse all sorts of substances. But with Eva Cassidy, it was a completely different story. She died of cancer, which is sad enough, but even sadder is that she was never really famous. That she didn’t experience that during her lifetime. In that respect, you can compare her to Vincent van Gogh, who also created the most beautiful paintings and knew himself that they were special, yet never received the recognition for them. She probably knew very well too that what she created was indeed, as you put it, in a league of its own, but she was never able to reap the rewards of it.’

‘Why not? How did it come about that, even though we already had this record, she didn’t receive that recognition? Why did nobody see that this was indeed so extraordinary?’

‘People often did see it. To give just one example, the president of Blue Note – surely one of the most important record labels – travelled to Washington DC especially to see her perform. He found it so special that he actually offered her a contract on the spot. She had to think for a moment and said: ‘Blue Note – isn’t that a jazz label?’ ‘Yes, basically it is a jazz label.’ ‘Well, I don’t feel like singing nothing but jazz.’ A major label like that, one everyone would kill to get signed to – and she said: ‘No, thanks.’’

‘That’s unbelievable. she sang jazz, folk and blues, and you’d also like us to play something from the album ‘Nightbird’ because she was also very good at up-tempo songs. ‘Take Me to the River’.

‘That album Nightbird sounds good again; I played it again yesterday, a beautiful album. When was this recorded?’

‘This is from the same concert as Live at Blues Alley. That was on 2nd and 3rd January 1996, and this was the album she didn’t want released. Just a handful of those tracks eventually appeared on the album Live at Blues Alley, the rest were older recordings they tacked on. And then, 20 years after she’d passed away, the record company decided, ‘Let’s go ahead and release that album after all.’ So that’s Nightbird, and to my utter amazement, these two CDs sound perfect from the first minute to the last.’

‘Why didn’t she think it was perfect?’

‘It was the recording from the final night, the recordings of the first night had gone wrong – which was also quite tragic. The second night was a one-off performance, and it’s just like in football: it had to go right first time, because your last chance is your only chance. It turned out she’d caught a cold the night before, she thought her voice wasn’t what her fans could expect, so she felt it wasn’t good enough to release.’

‘But fortunately it was released, and it’s beautiful.’

‘Sure, because Eva Cassidy with a cold is still better than any healthy singer.’

‘Did she really have a cold? Because you also said she suffered a lot from stage fright. Where did that come from?’

‘Well, that stage fright probably stems from the insecurity she developed in her childhood due to bullying and the like. But she was also a bit of a perfectionist. Even when everyone told her she was fantastic, she always knew deep down that something wasn’t quite right, and that really held her back. That was also the reason she actually didn’t want to become famous. In that respect, it’s perhaps not so tragic after all. That’s what her friends say too: this is what she would have wanted, others are speaking for her; they can praise her to the skies. Meanwhile, she’s sung her songs; we already have them and all we need to do is put them on a CD.’

‘Yes, we do indeed have the songs, and you’d also like to play something from I Know You by Heart because there’s a story behind that one too. Why is this song special to you?’

‘Well, this was one of the last things she recorded. Her brother Dan Cassidy played the violin part. He went to see his sister to say goodbye to her. Since he was in the area anyway, he recorded that violin part too. The first line of this song is: ‘You left in autumn.’ And as it turned out, that’s exactly how it happened; you could say she did indeed leave this world in the autumn. And there are also lines in it that are simply very moving in light of the fact that she has passed away, such as: ‘I still hear your voice every day’’

‘We do indeed still hear her voice every day when we listen to her. Are there still singers who listen to her and are influenced by her?’

‘At music schools lots of singers ask for Eva Cassidy. They want to learn to sing in her style. The question is: what is that style? She could sing in any style. All she had to do was flick a switch to move to a completely different register. She mastered every genre you can think of, except classical. In the popular genres, she simply mastered everything. In that sense, she is a great role model for many singers.’

‘What can you tell about the Eva Cassidy fan club?’

‘Chairman of the fan club is Anton van Dijken. I was involved right from the start because Anton said, ‘Would you like to address the people at the first meeting?’.

‘Dutch TV-host Humberto Tan is an honorary member, I know that for a fact because he’s a big fan too. We’re going to play her version of ‘What a Wonderful World’, and you’ve got a story to tell about that one as well.’

‘‘What a Wonderful World’ was the last song she sang in public. About two months before her death, her friends organised a charity gala. Although she was insured, medical costs in America are quite high and insurance is almost never enough. Her friends wanted to organise a concert, the proceeds of which would go towards her medical expenses. The question was whether she would even be able to attend. Not only did she come, she also made her way onto the stage; she walked with a walking frame, but she managed to get up there. Not only was she able to say a few words, but she also played a specially adapted guitar because she was already so weak, and then she sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ for the whole audience. Which is remarkable in itself. You know you’re dying, and yet you sing ‘what a wonderful world’.

Buy the biography: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behind-Rainbow-Story-Eva-Cassidy/dp/178760103X