Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy-winning jazz vocalist who collaborated with the Roots, Angelique Kidjo, and others, died Wednesday. Her manager, Robert Torre, told New Jersey radio station WBGO that Wilson “transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager,” but did not cite a cause of death. Music was a mainstay in Wilson’s life from childhood.
She was born to Herman B. Fowlkes, a jazz-guitarist father, and elementary school teacher on Dec. 4, 1955, in Jackson, Mississippi. She was playing piano at age 6, guitar at 12, and singing professionally by her late teens, according to her official website.
She received a college degree in mass communications from Jackson State University and began singing jazz in her twenties. She co-founded the M-Base Collective, which springboarded her to the national stage, with saxophonist Steve Coleman after moving to New York in 1982 with her then-husband, Anthony Wilson, who was once a weekend announcer on WBGO. And I learned to hear the layering of rhythms.
Before that, I had been only studying chords and standard A-A-B-A structured songs. But after Steve, I was able to return to standard material whenever I wanted to and find so many other things to do that I couldn’t have imagined before.” She released her debut solo album, Point of View, in 1986, singing songs she wrote and co-wrote alongside renditions of Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” and a song made popular by Billie Holiday, “I Wished on the Moon.” She explored what The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide described as “harmolodic jazz funk” on Jumpworld (1990) and deeper improvisation on She Who Weeps (1991), which includes a stirring rendition of “Body and Soul.” A turning point arrived when she sought an acoustic backdrop for her singing on her 1992 album, Blue Light ’til Dawn, her sparsely arranged Blue Note Records debut. In addition to Wilson’s originals, the album found her singing renditions of songs by Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, and Ann Peebles.
She continued on this path with New Moon Daughter in 1995, peppering her excellent originals (notably “Little Warm Death” and “Solomon Song”) with covers of Neil Young, U2, Hank Williams, and Monkees tunes. She explored Miles Davis’ catalog on Traveling Miles (1999). Later, she returned to jazz standards on Loverly.
She released the final solo album of her career, Coming Forth by Day, in 2015. It was an homage to Billie Holiday, released on what would’ve been Holiday’s 100th birthday. As a collaborator, Wilson recorded albums with Coleman, Greg Osby, and Wynton Marsalis.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
