Cassandra Wilson, Grammy-winning jazz singer, dies aged 70

Mississippi-born Wilson, who worked across folk, pop, R&B and country, was once dubbed America’s best singer

Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer has died. She was 70.

Dubbed America’s best singer by Time magazine in 2001, Wilson was best known for her genre-bending voice, which expanded the boundaries of traditional blues-based jazz and worked effortlessly across folk, pop, R&B, country and beyond. At the heart 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 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,” said a statement from her manager to the jazz radio station WBGO.

Born and raised in Jackson to musician Herman B Fowlkes and teacher Mary Fowlkes, Wilson showed an early love of music, listening to Motown, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. At six, she started piano lessons. She played clarinet in marching bands. She performed at coffeehouses and in cover bands while studying at Millsaps College and Jackson State University.

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 – eventually becoming its main vocalist.

Her instantly recognizable voice earned her four Grammy nominations and two wins for best jazz vocal album. Those were in 1997 for New Moon Daughter and 2009 for Loverly.

In 2015, it was Wilson who gave a special concert at the famed Apollo Theater to commemorate the 100th birthday of the blues singer Billie Holiday, the legendary American jazz vocalist who died in New York City at age 44. That same year, Wilson released her last album, Coming Forth by Day, a homage to Holiday.

In 2022, Wilson was named a National Endowment for the Arts jazz master, one of the highest honors awarded to jazz musicians in the United States.

“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 said in his tribute to Wilson on Instagram.

“Her Mississippi heritage was always present in everything no matter how expansive her artistry evolved,” he wrote in the caption of a clip showing them together 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’s mayor, John Horhn, said the city “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,” said the mayor’s statement, shared with WJTV. “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations.”