# Cassandra Wilson, the celebrated Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, dies aged 70: Videos, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2026/09/03/cassandra-wilson-the-celebrated-grammy-award-winning-jazz-singer-dies-aged-70-videos-photos/
- Published: 2026-09-03T08:50:51+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Goodbye, Cassandra … The night will never sound the same without you. 🖤**

Cassandra Wilson, known for her deep, moody and genre-bending contralto, was one
of the most influential American jazz vocalists of the last 40 years. She redefined
the boundaries of contemporary blues, jazz and folk.

American jazz singer and songwriter Cassandra Wilson has died in her hometown of
Jackson, Mississippi, aged 70.

![Cassandra Wilson performing at the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport - 10 August 2003](
https://i0.wp.com/images.euronews.com/articles/stories/09/89/95/21/1536x864_cmsv2_7b65ef1c-
45a9-5580-8e8a-960398626e07-9899521.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

The two-time Grammy winning vocalist was named TIME magazine’s “America’s Best Singer”
in 2001 and was best known for her distinctive and genre-bending contralto. She 
redefined the boundaries of traditional blues-jazz and folk sounds, and worked across
various genres including pop, country, and R&B.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the
Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist,” her manager Robert Torre wrote 
in a statement (via jazz radio station WBGO). “Cassandra 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.”

No cause of death was disclosed.

Jackson Mayor John Horhn also released statement: “Jackson has lost an extraordinary
native daughter, and the world has lost a singular musical voice. Cassandra Wilson
carried the sound, spirit and history of Mississippi with her wherever her music
reached. She built a remarkable career rooted in jazz, blues, gospel, folk and the
many traditions that shape our state’s musical identity.”

He added: “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of 
how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations.”

![Cassandra Wilson - 2003](https://i0.wp.com/images.euronews.com/articles/stories/
09/89/95/21/808x599_cmsv2_baab93c2-88c7-591e-a883-b9db37c30219-9899521.jpg?w=640&
ssl=1)

As Jon Batiste put it in a eulogy yesterday, Wilson sounded like the South.

“She had an unmistakable vocal tone, phrasing and her approach of weaving folkloric,
R&B and diasporic music together with experimental and popular genres had a major
impact on me,” Batiste added.

Wilson gained critical acclaim in 1988 for her third album ‘Blue Skies’ and later
signed to Blue Note Records in the early 90s, achieving breakthrough success with
albums like ‘Blue Light ‘Til Dawn’ (1993) and 1996’s ‘New Moon Daughter’ – the latter
of which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. She received her second
Grammy in 2009 for her album ‘Loverly’, crowned Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Throughout her solo career, she also contributed to albums by Steve Coleman, Greg
Obsy and two of The Roots’ records, ‘Do you Want More?!!!??!’ and ‘Illadelph Halflife’,
and recorded with the likes of Luther Vandross, Regina Carter, Angelique Kidjo, 
John Legend, Ravi Coltrane, and the Count Basie Orchestra. She was also a major 
voice in Wynton Marsalis’ oratorio ‘Blood on the Fields’,which became the first 
jazz work to win a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997.

In 2015, Wilson gave a special concert at the famed Apollo Theater to commemorate
the 100th birthday of blues singer Billie Holiday. That same year, she released 
her last studio album, ‘Coming Forth By Day’, an homage to Holiday.

She then formed a supergroup called Dopamine in 2020, alongside Elvis Costello, 
DJ Premier, T-Bone Burnett and Nathaniel Rateliff.

In 2022, Wilson received the National Endowment For The Arts Jazz Master Fellowship,
one of the highest honours awarded to jazz musicians in the US.

**RIP Cassandra Wilson 1955 – 2026**

![Cassandra Wilson performs at the 48th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction
and Awards Gala, New York - 15 June 2017](https://i0.wp.com/images.euronews.com/
articles/stories/09/89/95/21/808x539_cmsv2_fe571e9f-55f0-5f56-aa9b-58f6b1bf459a-
9899521.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

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