Cassandra Wilson

America's best singer

Cassandra Wilson was born Cassandra Fowlkes on December 4, 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, studied classical piano and clarinet as a child, taught herself guitar and attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University, where she earned a degree in mass communications. In 1981 she moved to New Orleans, where she sang on a Latin band's album produced by Allen Toussaint, and in 1982 to New York, studying with Grachan Moncur III and Sadik Hakim. She was a founding vocalist of the M-Base collective around Steve Coleman, sang on his Motherland Pulse in 1985 and toured with Henry Threadgill's New Air. Her first record as a leader was Point of View (JMT, 1986), and Blue Skies (1988) brought her first broad critical acclaim.

Blue Light 'til Dawn, her first for Blue Note, was released on November 2, 1993, produced by Craig Street. It reached 10 on the jazz albums chart and sold over 250,000 copies by March 1996; she said in 2013 it was the album that put her on the map. New Moon Daughter (1995) won a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance (Wikipedia dates the win 1996 and 1997). She recorded with Wynton Marsalis on Blood on the Fields in 1997, Traveling Miles (1999) honors Miles Davis, and later records include Belly of the Sun (2002), Glamoured (2003), Thunderbird (2006), Loverly (2008, a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album), Silver Pony (2010), Another Country (2012) and Coming Forth by Day (2015), a Billie Holiday centennial homage.

Time named her America's best singer in 2001, and DownBeat voted her female jazz vocalist from 1994 to 1996. She received the Miles Davis Prize in Montreal in 1999, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker in 2010 and honorary doctorates from Millsaps, The New School and Berklee, and became an NEA Jazz Master in 2022. Gary Giddins called her a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who expanded the playing field. She died on September 2, 2026 at home in Jackson, aged 70, according to Wikipedia, though some sources give September 1.