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Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson dies at 70
AP News • • general
Key Points:
- Cassandra Wilson, a two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer known for her genre-bending contralto voice, has died at age 70 in Jackson, Mississippi.
- Wilson was celebrated for blending blues-based jazz with folk, pop, R&B, and country, earning recognition as "America’s best singer" by Time magazine in 2001.
- She won Grammy Awards for best jazz vocal album in 1997 ("New Moon Daughter") and 2009 ("Loverly"), and was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2022.
- Wilson’s last album, "Coming Forth by Day" (2015), paid tribute to Billie Holiday, and she performed a special concert at the Apollo Theater commemorating Holiday’s 100th birthday.
- Tributes highlight Wilson’s deep connection to her Mississippi roots and her influential role in expanding jazz, with notable figures like Jon Batiste and Jackson Mayor John Horhn praising her legacy.
