-------
Sultry and Socially Conscious Jazz Legend Cassandra Wilson Dies At 70
 |
| Wilson at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, NYC, 2007 Photo Credit Professor Bop |
Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning singer whose Mississippi blues roots shaped one of the most distinctive voices in modern jazz, died Tuesday, September 1st in Jackson, Mississippi, according to Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard. Jeramiah Howard, confirmed her death at age 70; officials released no cause.
Wilson built her legacy as a musician who moved fluidly across genres, opening for Miles Davis and touring with Wynton Marsalis during a run of major jazz success through the 1980s and '90s. She embraced the title of musician above any single label, a stance that let her carry blues, folk, and soul into jazz spaces and expand who the genre could reach.
Her low, smoky voice brought fresh romance to Great American Songbook standards while she pulled covers from Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson into her repertoire, proving remarkably popular in decades when jazz lost mass audience share to rock and rap.
Wilson's rendition of "Strange Fruit" stands as one of her most powerful contributions to American music and memory. Billie Holiday's original recording exposed the horror of lynching in the Jim Crow South, and Wilson's version, with its slow-burning alto and spacious arrangement, carried that history forward for new listeners decades later. She turned the song into a bridge between generations, connecting the anti-lynching movement of the 20th century to ongoing conversations about racial violence today.
Checkout the Strange Fruit Video Below...
Article On The Passing of
Sultry & Socially Conscious Jazz Legend
Cassandra Wilson Continues After
Sponsor's Messages Below...
Sultry & Socially Conscious Jazz Legend
Cassandra Wilson Continues After
Sponsor's Messages Below...
Please Support Our Ad Sponsors Who Make This Community News Blog Possible. And Don't Forget To Tell Them You Saw Their Ad in The Scoop!
Article On The Passing of
Sultry & Socially Conscious
Jazz Legend Cassandra Wilson
Continues Below...
Sultry & Socially Conscious
Jazz Legend Cassandra Wilson
Continues Below...
 |
| Wilson at Ottawa Bluesfest, 2008 Photo Credit Scott Penner |
Nina Simone stood among the most profound influences on Wilson's artistry. Like Simone, she sang in a deep, sultry voice and held to a specific volume, rarely whispering or shouting. When she wanted to focus on a specific word or emotion, she had her band play softer or stop entirely, letting her make the point a cappella.
Like Simone, she intermingled songbook standards with originals, and an underlying current of social justice, feminism, and racial equality ran through nearly everything she sang. Critic Christopher John Farley, reviewing "New Moon Daughter" for Time, wrote that Wilson's songs feel like "seas of tranquility; tiny emotional variations have a major impact, a pebble in a calm pool of water."
Cassandra Marie Fowlkes, the youngest of three children, was born in Jackson on December 4, 1955. Her mother, Mary Fowlkes, worked as a public school educator, and her father, Herman Fowlkes Jr., moved between jobs as a postal worker, insurance agent, and music teacher while playing electric bass in local jazz and blues combos.
Wilson grew up playing classical piano, switched to clarinet and guitar as a teenager, and began songwriting at 13. Delta blues surrounded her Jackson upbringing, and she later reinterpreted foundational songs from the form, including Muddy Waters' "Honey Bee," Son House's "Death Letter," and three Robert Johnson classics.
 |
| Cassandra Wilson in concert, Pompei Jazz Festival 1987 - Picture by Pino Alpino |
Segregation still gripped Mississippi schools during her early years, and she had little contact with white students until winning the role of Dorothy in a school production of "The Wizard of Oz" in 11th grade. She formed a folk trio with two white classmates bonded over Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, an exchange she later called "eye-opening and important to my way of thinking about music and its boundaries."
She graduated from Jackson State University, a historically Black institution, in 1980 with a degree in mass communications, then settled briefly in New Orleans, where she recorded her first album with a local band called Jasmine.
Wilson moved to New York with plans to work behind the scenes in television, but she found her way instead to jam sessions and into the M-Base avant-garde collective in Brooklyn, led by saxophonist Steve Coleman. "We all banded together and decided to create our own place, our own language, our own shared repertoire," she told The Washington Post in 1994. She released eight albums between 1985 and 1992, moving gradually from M-Base experimentation toward standards, a shift that culminated in 1988's "Blue Skies" and opened the door to her 1989 slot opening for Miles Davis at the Chicago JVC Jazz Festival.
Signing with Blue Note Records in 1993 cemented her status as a major jazz star. "Blue Light 'Til Dawn" and "New Moon Daughter" became her defining breakthroughs, with producer Craig Street pairing her voice with unexpected instrumentation, from violin to clarinet to hand percussion. "New Moon Daughter" earned a Grammy for best jazz vocal performance and sold more than 400,000 copies, propelled partly by her haunting reinterpretation of the Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville," which surfaced the song's antiwar core.
Her golden decade stretched from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, a stretch that included a starring role in Marsalis's Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio "Blood on the Fields," where he introduced her as "Mississippi's finest, Cassandra Wilson." She followed with "Rendezvous" alongside pianist Jacky Terrasson, then "Traveling Miles," her tribute to Davis featuring new lyrics for his classics. "Belly of the Sun," recorded at an abandoned railway station near her hometown, closed out the Blue Note cycle. "Loverly" earned her a second Grammy in 2008.
"The gospel that I'm trying to get out is that, OK, it's fine to have a beautiful voice, but it will be even finer if you are able to communicate with that instrument as a musician," she told JazzTimes in 2024.
Wilson's marriages to Bruce Lincoln, Anthony Wilson, and actor Isaach de Bankolé all ended in divorce. She had one son, Jeris. Her artistry reflected the strength of Black Southern musical tradition, and her career opened doors for Black women in jazz to define themselves as full musicians, a legacy that continues to shape vocalists working today.
Sponsor's Messages Below
-------------
Be Encouraged And Inspired With...
New Children’s Picture Book Honoring A Mother-Son Bond And Black Hair Pride
See How Author Shellice Beharie pays tribute to the memory of her loving son in her debut picture book, "PRINCE AND HIS MOTHER’S CROWN: Tales Within my Mother’s Hair."
This read-aloud narrative communicates that in their early stages of childhood boys can find comfort and creativity in their mother’s tresses. Checkout this is very uplifting reading for our challenging times: Click Here. Or to order: Click Here
-------------
While there are brilliant persons on the Autism Spectrum celebrated today, very little media stories focus on people, especially women of color. Our co-publisher's new bio-pic "nZinga's Spectrum In 3D," is a moving and inspirational documentary on how a young Black woman RISES to overcome her challenges.
nZinga Austin is also the Co-publisher of Our Black News Scoop and Southeast Queens Scoop. The documentary of about 1/2 hr long is getting rave reviews.Checkout Nzinga's Spectrum in 3D now Click Here. Please share
While there are brilliant persons on the Autism Spectrum celebrated today, very little media stories focus on people, especially women of color. Our co-publisher's new bio-pic "nZinga's Spectrum In 3D," is a moving and inspirational documentary on how a young Black woman RISES to overcome her challenges.
nZinga Austin is also the Co-publisher of Our Black News Scoop and Southeast Queens Scoop. The documentary of about 1/2 hr long is getting rave reviews.
Checkout Nzinga's Spectrum in 3D now Click Here. Please share
Posted by community events coordinator, Nzinga Lonstein Austin, is a prolific blogger who writes on the entertainment industry and issues for people with developmental and physical challenges.She is presently in high school looking to have a career in video, film, and media. You can see more of her entertainment writing on Lonstein Movies.
About the Southeast Queens Scoop - is the premier website and only publication offering daily news and updates on the events, culture, issues, and is dedicated to the business and economic development in this largely black historic community.
Since you are here think about this please. Do You Want The Southeast Queens Scoop To Continue To Promote Empowering News and Events largely ignored by the corporate owned mainstream media in our area?
Since most local businesses don't have large ad budgets then please consider donating to ensure we can continue our media efforts. We appreciate all contributions ($5, $10, $15, $20, +) no amount is too small. Please donate now below or read more on donations.
No comments:
Post a Comment