Remembering Cassandra Wilson
December 4, 1955 – September 1, 2026
A tribute to the innovative jazz singer
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Cassandra Wilson passed away on Sept. 1, 2026 at the age of 70.
She was born as Cassandra Fowlkes in Jackson, Mississippi on Dec. 4, 1955.
Her father (Herman Fowlkes Jr.) was a local guitarist, bassist and music teacher.
She studied classical piano from the age of six, played clarinet in her junior high concert and marching bands, and was largely self-taught on guitar.
While earning a degree in Mass Communication from Jackson State, she sang in r&b, funk and pop bands.
Wilson moved to New Orleans in 1980 where she made her recording debut with the group Jasmine, relocating to New York City the following year where she met altoist Steve Coleman and became one of the founding member of the M-Base collective.
Cassandra Wilson recorded with M-Base members, toured and recorded with Threadgill’s New Air, and made her recording debut as a leader in 1985 with Point Of View.
Breaking away from the M-Base style (although she would record with some of the musicians as late as 1992), she had success with 1988’s Blue Skies (where she sounded a lot like her influence Betty Carter), and 1993’s Blue Light ‘til Dawn, performing not only jazz songs but a repertoire that included pop, World Music, country, blues, and rock, blending the idioms together (which included songs by the Monkees, Hank Williams, and Robert Johnson) into her own style.
She explored jazz standards on 1996’s New Moon Daughter, performed on Wynton Marsalis’ “Blood On the Fields,” recorded with pianist Jacky Terrasson, and paid tribute to Miles Davis on 1999’s Traveling Miles.
Cassandra Wilson was less active in her later years, making her last album as a leader in 2014 and not recording much after 2015.
From the 2008 Monterey Jazz Festival, Cassandra Wilson (with the assistance of guitarist Marvin Sewell, pianist Jon Baptiste, bassist Reginald Veal, drummer Herlin Riley, and percussionist Lekan Babalola, makes “St. James Infirmary” her own.
-Scott Yanow
Click here if you have a memory of this artist that you’d like to share
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