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Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson dies at 70
Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Two-time Grammy-winning jazz singer Cassandra Wilson died Tuesday in Jackson, Mississippi, at age 70, the county coroner and her representative said.
- Wilson expanded traditional blues-based jazz with a style that incorporated folk, pop, R&B, country and experimental music.
- She won Grammy Awards for New Moon Daughter in 1997 and Loverly in 2009, and received the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Master honor in 2022.
Cassandra Wilson, the Mississippi-born singer whose unmistakable voice carried jazz into folk, pop, R&B, country and experimental music, has died at 70. The two-time Grammy winner died Tuesday morning at her home in Jackson, surrounded by family, close friends and her manager, according to a statement from her representative to jazz station WBGO.
Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard confirmed the death. No cause was specified. Wilson’s ability to blur musical boundaries made her one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz. Time named her the best singer in the United States in 2001.
Cassandra Wilson, the legendary Grammy-winning jazz artist, has died. Cassandra Wilson passed peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, close friends and her manager.
Born and raised in Jackson, Wilson was the daughter of musician Herman B. Fowlkes and teacher Mary Fowlkes. She developed an early interest in music while listening to Motown, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. She began piano lessons at six, later played clarinet in marching bands, and performed in coffeehouses and tribute groups while studying at Millsaps College and Jackson State University.
She had an unmistakable vocal tone, her own phrasing, and her way of weaving folk, R&B and diaspora music with experimental and popular genres had a great impact on me.
In the early 1980s, she studied under leading jazz figures in New Orleans before moving to New York and joining Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective. She eventually became its principal vocalist. Her singular phrasing earned four Grammy nominations and two awards for best jazz vocal album, for New Moon Daughter and Loverly.
Wilson performed at the Apollo Theater in 2015 to mark Billie Holiday’s 100th birth anniversary. That year, she released Coming Forth by Day, her final album, as a tribute to Holiday. Jon Batiste praised her distinctive tone and phrasing, while Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the city had lost “an extraordinary daughter, and the world has lost a unique musical voice.”
Jackson has lost an extraordinary daughter, and the world has lost a unique musical voice.
About this summary
Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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