16 Facts About Cassandra Wilson

1.

Cassandra Wilson was born on December 4,1955 and is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi.

2.

Cassandra Wilson is one of the most successful female Jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country, and folk music into her work.

3.

Cassandra Wilson has won numerous awards, including two Grammys, and was named "America's Best Singer" by Time magazine in 2001.

4.

Cassandra Wilson is the third and youngest child of Herman Fowlkes, Jr.

5.

Cassandra Wilson explored guitar on her own, developing what she has described as an "intuitive" approach.

6.

Cassandra Wilson appeared in the musical theater productions, including The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy, crossing racial lines in a recently desegregated school system.

7.

In 2007, Cassandra Wilson received her PhD in Arts from Millsaps College.

8.

Cassandra Wilson would become the vocalist and one of the founding members of the M-Base collective in which Coleman was the leading figure, a stylistic outgrowth of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and Black Artists Group that re-imagined the grooves of funk and soul within the context of traditional and avant-garde jazz.

9.

Cassandra Wilson can be heard on Coleman's debut as a leader Motherland Pulse, then as member of his Five Elements on On the Edge of Tomorrow, World Expansion, Sine Die, and on M-Base Collective's sole recording as a large ensemble Anatomy of a Groove.

10.

Cassandra Wilson released her first recording as a leader Point of View in 1986.

11.

Cassandra Wilson developed a remarkable ability to stretch and bend pitches, elongate syllables, manipulate tone and timbre from dusky to hollow.

12.

Cassandra Wilson's 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.

13.

In 1989, Cassandra Wilson performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago.

14.

The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November 1997 in Davis' honor, and includes three selections based on Davis' own compositions, from which Cassandra Wilson adapted the original themes.

15.

Cassandra Wilson was married to Anthony Cassandra Wilson from 1981 to 1983.

16.

Cassandra Wilson has a son, Jeris, born in the late 1980s.