{"id":588935,"date":"2026-09-03T15:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588935\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:14:09","slug":"cassandra-wilson-dead-grammy-winning-jazz-musician-was-70","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588935\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassandra Wilson Dead: Grammy-Winning Jazz Musician Was 70"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCassandra Wilson<\/a>, the Grammy-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer, has died. She was 70.<\/p>\n

\n\tWilson\u2019s longtime manager Robert Torre shared with WBGO<\/a> that Wilson died early Wednesday morning in Jackson, Mississippi. A cause of death was not given.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist,\u201d reads Torre\u2019s statement. \u201cCassandra Wilson transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager. Her family and close friends respectfully ask for privacy during this difficult time as they grieve her loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout her career, Wilson was a relatively prolific jazz musician with an emotive contralto who incorporated elements of blues and funk into her songwriting. She won two Grammys, including the award for best jazz vocal performance in 1997 with \u201cNew Moon Daughter\u201d and best jazz vocal album in 2009 with \u201cLoverly,\u201d and collaborated extensively with Steve Coleman as well as the Roots, Wynton Marsalis and Greg Osby. In 2001, Time magazine declared her \u201cAmerica\u2019s Best Singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn in Jackson, Mississippi, Coleman began playing piano at the age of six and picked up the guitar at 12, according to a bio on her website. She moved to New York City in the early 1980s and met saxophonist Coleman to found M-Base, a collective of musicians that also counted Geri Allen and Osby.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe released her debut solo album \u201cPoint of View\u201d in 1986 and followed with a string of projects before signing to Blue Note Records for 1993\u2019s \u201cBlue Light \u2018Til Dawn,\u201d hailed at the time for its blend of blues, jazz and pop but also considered controversial in the jazz world for skirting more traditional jazz conventions.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the years, she continued to record and release albums of originals and covers of songs from Neil Young, Cyndi Lauper and Bob Dylan. She collaborated with numerous artists across genres including Luther Vandross, Angelique Kidjo, Terrence Blanchard and Olu Dara. She most recently released her final solo album \u201cComing Forth by Day\u201d in 2015 as an homage to Billie Holiday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer, has died. She was 70. Wilson\u2019s longtime manager Robert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[289835,430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-588935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-cassandra-wilson","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}