RIP Cassandra Wilson
That voice - it was unmistakable and every time I heard it, it drew me in and kept me wanting more. Sadly, Grammy-award winning jazz singer, Cassandra Wilson, died today in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. She was 70 years old.
I first was exposed to Wilson’s voice through her 1993 album Blue Light ‘til Dawn. It was an incredible mix of originals and covers and nothing was truly straightforward. The songs were complex and diverse that brilliantly fused Mississippi Delta blues, folk and jazz through mostly acoustic arrangements. But it was her voice that serves as the driving force behind every song. Whether it was her version of Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey”, Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen” or Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow” - Wilson made every song her very own.
Born in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, Cassandra Wilson grew up surrounded by music, with a mother who taught elementary school and a father who was a bassist and music educator. She began studying piano and guitar at an early age and developed an interest in jazz, blues, folk, and soul. After attending Jackson State University, Wilson moved to New Orleans and later New York, where she immersed herself in the jazz scene.
During the 1980s, she worked with musicians and became associated with the M-Base collective, an adventurous group of young jazz musicians exploring new approaches to composition and improvisation. By the early 1990s, Wilson was beginning to establish herself as a distinctive vocalist and recording artist, blending jazz tradition with blues, folk, and contemporary influences. This is when she really developed that deep, earthy sound and highly individual style that became her trademark.
Her 1996 album New Moon Daughter earned Wilson her first Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, cementing her as one of the defining vocalists of her generation. The album again found balance between originals like “A Little Warm Death” and covers like The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville”, U2’s “Love Is Blindness” and the incredible version of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”.
Albums and honors continued into the 2000s with Time Magazine naming her “America’s Best Singer” in 2001. Her 2008 album Loverly brought her a second Grammy and in recent years she received an honorary doctorate in Music from the Berklee College of Music.
Cassandra Wilson’s voice, which was rooted in the sounds of her native Mississippi, found its way into so many genres of American music - from jazz to blues to folk and country. She redefined what a jazz vocalist could be, all the while, making every song her own.
I’ve put together a mixtape of my favorite songs from her - showing the wide range of the music that inspired her, the music that moved her and the music that mattered to her. Her voice will always live inside me, I’ll carry it with me wherever I go - because it was that special and that memorable and that perfect.
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