Basic Facts
Born: December 4, 1955, Jackson, Mississippi
Type of Performer: Vocalist, composer, producer
Genre: Jazz
About Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson was born in 1955 in Mississippi. Her father was a guitarist who was well-known in the region and her mother was a teacher. She began playing piano at age six and guitar at age twelve and showed an aptitude for music. She went to Jackson State University before she moved to New York City in the early 1980s where she became one of the founding members of the M-Base Collective. In 1992, she signed with Blue Note Records and her album Blue Light 'Til Dawn has become one of the most important albums in the repertoire. In 1997, she toured with Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields. Since then, she has toured and performed all over the world. She released a widely-acclaimed tribute album to Billie Holiday in 2015, bringing her total albums on Blue Note Records to ten, as well as several albums on JMT.
She has won numerous awards, including two GRAMMY Awards, the Django D'Or, and The Edison Music Award. In 2002, Verve issued Sings Standards, a collection of songbook tracks from her JMT records that reached number five on the Billboard Top Jazz Albums chart without much promotion. She also earned a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, and in 2014, TIME Magazine called her the best singer in the United States.
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Tupelo Honey
Don't Explain
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