Time after time, jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson continues to surprise

Once you hear her deep-amber voice, honeyed and smokey, it is unmistakable. But the repertoire of jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson continually surprises.

The bewitching singer, at Jazz Alley in the coming days for her first Seattle gig in this decade, has one of the most diverse discographies of any top jazz chanteuse.

The Jackson, Miss., native recently released a retrospective of pop covers, "Closer to You," featuring her arrestingly unique interpretations of songs by the likes of U2, Neil Young, Cyndi Lauper.

Over her 20-year-plus career, she's also cast her sensuous spell on Broadway melodies, the instrumental tunes of trumpeter Miles Davis, Brazilian sambas, old-time Delta blues, self-penned experimental-jazz originals.

In a voice softer and higher than her deep-river singing timbre, Wilson chats by phone about being a song connoisseur, collector, historian and medium.

"I always say that I don't choose the material, it chooses me," she declares. "Because a song, especially if it's got a good story and something I can connect with emotionally, will just stick around in my head and I won't be able to get rid of it."

One tune sticking lately? "Pony Blues."

"I found it in a real weird, roundabout way," she says. "I was involved in this project about Langston Hughes, and in his book of poems, 'Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz,' he quoted a lyric that began, 'Hello, Central.'

"It was from a song called 'Hesitation Blues,' and in a book I was reading about the Delta blues, I found out blues singer Charlie Patton wrote it, so I tracked it down. I like to research those kinds of patterns in the blues."

Wilson also has Joni Mitchell stuck in her brain. On her gorgeous hit 1996 disc "Blue Light 'Til Dawn," with producer Craig Street, she carved out a rootsy, acoustic sound in a spooky-stunning version of Mitchell's "Black Crow," that propelled her music in a whole new direction.

But Wilson passes on songs, even by her favorite artists, when they don't speak to her. "It's really not so much about the style or the genre, because you can tear that up or build a new structure. It's about the message."

Billie Holiday is one of her big influences (with jazz divas Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln and Nancy Wilson). But she chose not to record "Deep Song," a Holiday blues tune recommended to her.

"It has an exquisite harmonic architecture, but the lyric was too dark for me," Wilson notes. "I said the same thing to Craig Street about the Bono song 'Love is Blindness,' but that one has a little tongue-in-cheek stuff in it, too. There was none of that in 'Deep Song.' It was pretty desperate."

The divorced mother of a 21-year-old son, Wilson hasn't made it to Seattle lately because she's worked mainly on the East Coast and in Europe. She divides her off time between homes in upstate New York, Mississippi and New Orleans. "I love all three for different reasons. New Orleans has a lot going on, musically there's a real flourishing down there."

Wilson has finished a new disc, which she says she might just release via Facebook. And to her delight, pop star John Legend wrote a new tune for her.

"There are quite a few younger artists out there like John, who are learning their history, and making their way to an understanding of a broader traditional dynamic," she says. "John has a really powerful, distinct voice. His material is wonderful, and I know it will continue to evolve."

These days, for live gigs, Wilson works alternately with two combos. Each reflects a different side of her musical personality.

"One band is guitar-based, in the style of the [album] 'New Moon Daughter' material. The other band I'm bringing to Seattle. It's from my jazz head, a group of five or six pieces with very expressive, powerful soloists."

She muses, "I wish I could work with both bands at the same time, choosing back and forth from different material. That would be great."

Yes indeed. And Wilson fans can dream, can't we?

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com