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Cassandra Wilson, an American jazz singer and songwriter regarded as one of the most influential vocalists of the past four decades, has died at 70 in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi.
Wilson died peacefully at home surrounded by family, close friends and her longtime manager Robert Torre, according to a statement issued Wednesday. The cause of death was not disclosed.
"It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist," Torre said.
Known for her deep, melancholic contralto voice, Wilson blurred the boundaries between jazz, blues and folk while incorporating elements of pop, country and R&B into her work.
Time magazine named her "America's Best Singer" in 2001, praising her as a soulful, sensual and lyrical performer who carried forward the tradition of great jazz vocalists.
Jackson Mayor John Horhn described Wilson as an "extraordinary native daughter" and a singular musical voice. "Cassandra Wilson carried the sound, spirit and history of Mississippi with her wherever her music reached," Horhn said.
Musician Jon Batiste said in a tribute that Wilson "sounded like the South," crediting her distinctive tone and phrasing, as well as her fusion of folkloric, R&B, and diasporic music with experimental and popular styles, as having a major influence on him.
Born Cassandra Fowlkes in Jackson in 1955, Wilson began playing piano at the age of six and took up guitar by 12.
After moving to New York City in the early 1980s, she met saxophonist Steve Coleman and became a founding member of the M-Base Collective, a jazz group known for blending improvisation with funk and hip-hop rhythms.
She received widespread critical acclaim with her 1988 album Blue Skies and later signed with Blue Note Records, a leading jazz record label, achieving a breakthrough with Blue Light 'Til Dawn in 1993.
Her album New Moon Daughter won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 1997, while Loverly earned her a second award in the same category in 2009.
Wilson received four Grammy nominations during her career. She also contributed to recordings by artists including Steve Coleman, Gregory Osby, Luther Vandross, Regina Carter, Angelique Kidjo, John Legend, and Ravi Coltrane. She appeared on The Roots' albums Do You "Want More?!!!??!" and "Illadelph Halflife."
Wilson was one of the principal vocalists on Wynton Marsalis' oratorio Blood on the Fields, a large-scale musical composition combining orchestral and vocal elements, which became the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997.
In 2015, Wilson marked the centenary of Billie Holiday's birth with a special performance at New York's Apollo Theater. That year, she released "Coming Forth by Day," a tribute to "Holiday" and her final studio album.
She later joined Black Thought, Elvis Costello, DJ Premier, T Bone Burnett and Nathaniel Rateliff in the genre-spanning supergroup project Dopamine.
Wilson was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2022.
The National Endowment for the Arts is a U.S. federal agency that supports artistic excellence, and the Jazz Masters title is one of the highest honors bestowed on jazz musicians in the country.
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