By Dale Elizabeth Merriman and Rodrigo Brandao

In an unprecedented encounter organized by New York Times Jazz critic Ben Ratliff, singers Gal Costa and Cassandra Wilson (together with Mr. Ratliff and translator Lucia Guimarães) listened and discussed some of the artists and musical genres that influenced and inspired their musical careers. The one-hour conversation took place on January 11, 2009, at the New York Times building on West 41st street, as part of the annual Arts & Leisure Weekend series.

Following the interview format of his recently published book The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music , where musicians such as Sonny Rollins and Hank Jones selected their favorite tracks and discussed them with the author, Mr. Ratliff started the event by explaining the reasoning for such a pairing.

“Their interests overlap,” said Ratliff. “Cassandra knows a lot about Brazilian popular music and has recorded songs by Tom Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and others. And Gal [Costa] is from a generation of Brazilian musicians who were really invested in America Jazz as source material. ”

Gal Costa & Cassandra Wilson from BrazilNYC on Vimeo .

Speaking in Portuguese for the duration of the interview, Gal Costa kicked off the event with João Gilberto’s Chega de Saudade, a song that according to her “changed my life [at the age of 12] and the life of an entire generation of artists.”

“Although autodidact,” Ms. Costa continued, “I was very conscious of my singing technique. And João Gilberto, with his unique voice, made me even more aware of that. So I began studying at home: how to use my diaphragm, how to use sing rhythmically, and mainly, how to express the singing word.”

Certainly, the focus on technique paid off handsomely. Today, Gal Costa is widely considered one of Brazil’s most accomplished and technically rigorous singers.

And as Mr. Ratliff pointed out in a recent New York Times review , after a series of unprecedentedly small concerts (with guitarist Romero Lubambo) at New York’s Blue Note in October of 2008, “whenever Gal Costa draws out a flat “a” at the end of a Portuguese word, she wins. She can do this as much as she wants, and it always works [...]  suddenly what was language becomes purely sound.”

Cassandra Wilson also spoke with the true conviction of an artist who knows her craft.

She selected an introductory tune by Miles Davis, I Fall in Love Too Easily, a song that is the epitome of cool jazz and self collection; a song truly reminiscent of her Mississippi origins. As Cassandra commented, Davis’ quintessential track “is powerful; I almost cried. The heart comes through his trumpet and is more than just sound.” Ms. Wilson then reveals that she modeled her music after that sound – “hitting it [just right] and letting it go.”

As different songs by luminaries like Abbey Lincoln, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holliday, and Nina Simone were heard by an audience of over 100 people, Wilson and Costa shared the idea that jazz is a universally beloved sound that touches chords of wonder and enjoyment in all who listen to it.

Come back next week and check the second part of this unprecedented conversation between two of America’s most accomplished singers.

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