Cassandra Wilson, the 2-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, dies at 70
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NEW YORK (AP) — Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer has died. She was 70.
Dubbed America’s greatest singer by Time journal in 2001, Wilson was greatest identified for her genre-bending voice, which expanded the boundaries of conventional blues-based jazz and labored effortlessly throughout folks, pop, R&B, nation and past. At the center of all her work was her idiosyncratic contralto, a soulful sound distinctly tied to her roots.
As Jon Batiste put it in a eulogy on Wednesday, Wilson sounded just like the South.
She died in her native Jackson, Mississippi, on Tuesday morning, the Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard confirmed.
“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist. Cassandra Wilson transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager,” stated an announcement from her supervisor to jazz radio station WBGO.
From Jackson to the world
Born and raised in Jackson to musician Herman B. Fowlkes and trainer Mary Fowlkes, Wilson confirmed an early love of music listening to Motown, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. At 6, she began piano classes. She performed clarinet in marching bands. She carried out at coffeehouses and in cowl bands whereas finding out at Millsaps College and Jackson State University.
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In the early ‘80s, she mentored under jazz greats in New Orleans before moving to New York City and joining Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective — finally changing into its predominant vocalist.
Her immediately recognizable voice earned her 4 Grammy nominations and two wins for greatest jazz vocal album. Those had been in 1997 for “New Moon Daughter” and 2009 for “Loverly.”
In 2015, it was Wilson who gave a particular live performance on the famed Apollo Theater to commemorate the a centesimal birthday of blues singer Billie Holiday, the legendary American jazz vocalist who died in New York City at age 44. That identical yr, Wilson launched her final album, “Coming Forth by Day,” an homage to Holiday.
In 2022, Wilson was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, one of many highest honors awarded to jazz musicians within the United States.
Tributes pour in
“She had an unmistakable vocal tone, phrasing and her approach of weaving folkloric, R&B and diasporic music together with experimental and popular genres had a major impact on me,” Batiste stated in his tribute to Wilson on Instagram.
“Her Mississippi heritage was always present in everything no matter how expansive her artistry evolved,” he wrote within the caption of a clip exhibiting them collectively on Brazilian TV in 2009. “She was one of the first people to take me on tour around the world, the great Cassandra Wilson.”
Jackson Mayor John Horhn stated town “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,” stated the mayor’s assertion, shared with WJTV. “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations.”
