Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi.
Like many jazz musicians Wilson’s formal musical education consisted of classical lessons; she studied piano from the age of six to 13 and played clarinet in the middle school concert and marching bands. When she tired of this training, she asked her father to teach her the guitar. Instead, he gave her a lesson in self-reliance—some Mel Bay method books. She explored the instrument on her own, developing what she has described as an “intuitive” approach. During this time she began writing her own songs, adopting a folk style. She sang and played guitar in a folk trio during high school and also appeared in the musical theater productions, crossing racial lines in a recently desegregated school system.
For college, Wilson attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University. She graduated with a degree in mass communications. Outside of the classroom, the busy student spent her nights working with R&B, funk, and pop cover bands, also singing in local coffeehouses. The Black Arts Music Society, founded by John Reese and Alvin Fielder, provided her with her first opportunities to perform bebop.
In 1981, she moved to New Orleans for a position as assistant public affairs director for the local television station, WDSU. She did not stay long. Working with mentors who included elder statesmen Earl Turbinton, Alvin Batiste, and Ellis Marsalis, Wilson found encouragement to seriously pursue jazz performance and moved to the New York City area the following year.
Like fellow M-base artists, Wilson signed to the Munich-based, independent label JMT. She released her first recording as a leader Point of View in 1986. Like the majority of her JMT albums that followed, originals by Wilson in keeping with M-base dominated these sessions; she would also record material by and co-written with Coleman, Jean-Paul Bourelly, and James Weidman as well as a few standards. Her throaty contralto gradually emerges over the course of these recordings, making its way to the foreground. She developed a remarkable ability to stretch and bend pitches, elongate syllables, manipulate tone and timbre from dusky to hollow.
While these recordings established her as a serious musician , Wilson received her first broad critical acclaim for the album of standards recorded in the middle of this period, Blue Skies (1988). Her signing with Blue Note records in 1993 marked a crucial turning point in her career and major breakthrough to audiences beyond jazz with albums selling in the hundreds of thousands of copies.
Beginning with Blue Light ‘Til Dawn (1993) her repertoire moved towards a broad synthesis of blues, pop, jazz, world music, and country. Although she continued to perform originals and standards, she adopted songs as diverse as Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen,” Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville,” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Not only did Wilson effectively reconnect vocal jazz with its blues roots, she was arguably the first to convincingly fashion post-British Invasion pop into jazz, trailblazing a path that many have since followed. Furthermore, producer Craig Street drew from pop production techniques to create a rich ambient environment around her voice, magnifying it and giving sonic depth to Brandon Ross’ sparse but incredibly vivid arrangements, which used steel guitar, violin, accordion, and percussion.
Wilson’s 1996 album New Moon Daughter won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. In 1997, she recorded and toured as a featured vocalist with Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize winning composition, Blood on the Fields.
The late Miles Davis was one of Wilson’s greatest influences. In 1989 Wilson performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago. In 1999 she produced Traveling Miles as a tribute to Davis. The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November of 1997 in Davis’ honor and includes three selections based on Davis’ own compositions, in which Wilson adapted the original themes.
Albums
Solo
- Point of View (1985)
- Days Aweigh (1987)
- Blue Skies (1988)
- Jumpworld (1989)
- She Who Weeps (1990)
- Live (1991)
- After the Beginning Again (1991)
- Dance to the Drums Again (1992)
- Blue Light ‘Til Dawn (1993)
- New Moon Daughter (1995)
- Songbook (1996)
- Rendezvous (with Jacky Terrasson) (1998)
- Traveling Miles (1999)
- Belly of the Sun (2002)
- Sings Standards (2002)
- Glamoured (2003)
- Love Phases Dimensions: From the JMT Years (2004)
- Thunderbird (2006)
With Steve Coleman
- Motherland Pulse (1985)
- World Expansion
- On the Edge of Tomorrow
With M-Base
- Anatomy of a Groove
- Dance to the Drums Again (1993)
Soundtracks
Soundtracks featuring Cassandra Wilson.
- 1994 Jimmy Hollywood: “Let the Good Times Roll”
- 1994 Junior: “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Little Warm Death”
- 1995 Miami Rhapsody: “How Long Has This Been Going On?”
- 1997 Love Jones: “You Move Me” (see Love Jones (soundtrack))
- 1997 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (film): “Days of Wine and Roses”
- 1998 B. Monkey: “Tupelo Honey”
- 1999 Passions (TV series): “Time after Time”
- 2001 The Score: “Green Dolphin Street” and “You’re About To Give In”
- 2002 Brown Sugar: “Time After Time”
- 2005 Don’t Come Knocking: “Lost”
Filmography
Cassandra Wilson features as a singer in the following films.
- Junior (1994)
- The Score (2001)