Grammy-winning jazz singer Cassandra Wilson has passed away at age 70.
Born in Jackson on Dec. 4, 1955, Wilson began her playing career at age 6, when she started playing piano. At 12, she learned guitar and later became a prominent vocalist by the mid-1970s. Wilson blended blues, country, and folk into her jazz and, as critic Gary Giddins described her, was “a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field.”
In the early 1980s, the Jackson native moved to New York City and met saxophonist Steve Coleman before she became a founding member of the M-Base Collective – an innovative, big band jazz group.
Wilson left the group in 1992 when she signed with Blue Note Records and released her landmark album “Blue Light ‘Til Dawn,” which was largely considered a trend-setting album that inspired jazz singers to come.
During her career, Wilson won two Grammys, the Django D’Or Award, The Edison Music Award, and earned a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. In 2022, she was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship – the highest honor for a jazz musician in the U.S. Wilson was also a part of the first jazz work to earn a Pulitzer Prize from her leading role in Wynton Marsalis’ “Blood on the Fields.”
“[Wilson] built a remarkable career rooted in jazz, blues, gospel, folk and the many traditions that shape our state’s musical identity,” Jackson Mayor John Horhn said in a statement “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations. Through every performance and recording, she carried forward the legacy of jazz, blues and gospel.”
Wilson continued to be a creative star in jazz, blues, country, and folk singing, songwriting, and producing until her death was announced on Wednesday.
“Jackson has lost an extraordinary native daughter, and the world has lost a singular musical voice. Cassandra Wilson carried the sound, spirit and history of Mississippi with her wherever her music reached,” Horhn continued. “Cassandra Wilson showed the world the richness of Jackson and Mississippi music. Her legacy will continue to be heard in the artists she inspired and the pride she brought to her hometown. On behalf of the City of Jackson, I extend my condolences to her family, friends, fellow musicians and all who loved her music.”
Wilson’s cause of death has not been released publicly.
