Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist, composer, and producer whose velvety contralto voice and genre-defying arrangements redefined modern American music, has died. She was 70 years old.
Wilson passed away peacefully Sept. 1
at her home in Jackson, Mississippi, surrounded by close family, friends, and her manager, according to a statement provided by her longtime manager, Robert Torre. The official cause of death was not immediately disclosed.Wilson’s seminal 1993 album, Blue Light ’til Dawn
, fundamentally shifted the trajectory of contemporary jazz by blending traditional acoustic jazz with Delta blues, folk, country, and soul.In 2022, she received the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellowship
, the nation’s highest honor for jazz musicians.Check out BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s favorite performances by the late, great Ms. Wilson:
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