Cassandra Wilson, the acclaimed jazz vocalist and songwriter, has died at 70. In 2001, Time magazine described Wilson, a double Grammy winner, as “America’s best singer”.
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Wilson's musical influences included the Delta blues and gospel sounds of her childhood, as well as classical piano lessons from her mother and guitar harmonies taught by her father. Her parents were admirers of Miles Davis and Motown.
Wilson won Grammy awards for her albums 'New Moon Daughter' (1996) and 'Loverly' (2009). She also played a central role in Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer-winning jazz oratorio, 'Blood on the Fields' (1997).
In 2020, Boston’s Berklee College of Music awarded Wilson an honorary doctorate in music. The US government presented her with a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master fellowship in 2022. Her final solo album, 'Coming Forth By Day', a tribute to Billie Holiday, was released in 2015.