Cassandra Wilson, the Mississippi born jazz singer whose deep contralto made standards, Delta blues and pop songs sound like they all came from the same place, died on the morning of Tuesday, September 1, in her hometown of Jackson. She was 70. The Hinds County coroner confirmed her death, the Associated Press reported. Time magazine once called her “America’s best singer,” and for many listeners, that never felt like an exaggeration.

If you only knew her name, or knew one song, this is a good moment to go deeper. Here is who she was, why her voice mattered, and where to start listening.

Who Cassandra Wilson Was

She was born Cassandra Fowlkes on December 4, 1955, in Jackson. According to NPR’s obituary, her father, Herman Fowlkes, was an educator and a bass and guitar player with a serious jazz record collection, and her mother, Dr. Mary Fowlkes, was also an educator. She earned a degree in mass communications from Jackson State University and studied jazz with the drummer Alvin Fielder before moving to New Orleans in the early 1980s and then to New York.

In New York she became part of Steve Coleman’s M-Base collective and released her debut, Point of View, in the mid 1980s. Her breakthrough came in 1993 with Blue Light ’til Dawn on Blue Note Records, produced by Craig Street. From there, she won two Grammy Awards, for New Moon Daughter and for the standards album Loverly. She also sang on Wynton Marsalis’ Blood on the Fields, the first jazz work to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2022, the National Endowment for the Arts named her an NEA Jazz Master, the nation’s highest honor for jazz artists, which came with a $25,000 award.

Why Her Voice Mattered

Wilson never treated jazz as a museum. She pulled the Delta blues, folk, R&B and pop into the same room and made them talk to each other. The Mississippi Blues Trail notes that she recorded songs by Delta blues artists Robert Johnson, Son House and Muddy Waters, and that her father played with blues musicians including Sonny Boy Williamson. That lineage runs straight through her records.

She was also famously unhurried. “I love nuance and I love digging inside of a lyric,” she told WBGO in 2022. Younger musicians heard that. Jon Batiste, in a tribute quoted by the AP, pointed to her “unmistakable vocal tone” and said her blend of folkloric, R&B and diasporic music had a major impact on him.

At home, the loss landed hard. Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the city “has lost an extraordinary native daughter,” WLBT reported, and praised how she carried Mississippi’s sound and history out into the world. She belongs to the long line of Black artists who built American music from the ground up, the same tradition that filled dance floors like Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom a century ago.

Where to Start: A Cassandra Wilson Listening Guide

Her catalog is deep, and it rewards patience. Look for these on your streaming service of choice, or better yet, ask for them at a local record store.

Blue Light ’til Dawn (1993)

Start here. This is the album that introduced her to a wide audience, and it shows everything she did well: slow tempos, acoustic textures, and songs from far outside the jazz songbook. Listen for her version of Robert Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail,” which turns a Delta blues classic into something haunting and new.

New Moon Daughter

Her first Grammy winner builds on the same approach. Her reading of “Death Letter” is a good entry point, and it shows how comfortable she was moving between blues grit and jazz phrasing.

Belly of the Sun (2002)

Recorded in Clarksdale, Mississippi, this album brought her back to the Delta. Try “Darkness on the Delta” and “Road So Clear.”

Blue Skies (1988)

If you want to hear her handle standards early in her career, this is the one. NPR notes it was named Billboard’s jazz album of the year.

Loverly and Coming Forth by Day

Loverly, her second Grammy winner, is a warm standards program. Coming Forth by Day, her final album, is a tribute to Billie Holiday, and it pairs well with the knowledge that she gave a special Apollo Theater concert in 2015 honoring Holiday’s centennial.

How to Honor Her Legacy

Visit the marker in Jackson

Wilson’s Mississippi Blues Trail marker was the trail’s 100th, dedicated on January 7, 2010. It stands at Brinkley Middle School in Jackson, across the street from where she grew up, the Mississippi Link reported. If you are traveling through Jackson, it is a quiet, free way to pay respects.

Hear her story in video

The National Endowment for the Arts posted a free tribute video when she was named a Jazz Master. It is a good way to share her work with someone who has never heard of her.

Support the ecosystem that made her

Wilson came up through local bands, college programs and community mentors in Jackson and New Orleans. Supporting school music programs, public jazz radio and local jazz venues is how the next singer like her gets a start. Buying her records, especially from independent and Black owned record stores, keeps the music moving too.

As of this writing, we did not find public details about memorial services. Local outlets in Jackson, including WLBT, are the best place to watch for them.

Cassandra Wilson spent 40 years proving that the blues, jazz and the songs of everyday people were never as far apart as the record bins suggested. Put on Blue Light ’til Dawn tonight, turn it up a little, and let her take her time.