Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson was born on December 4, 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi. She started training in classical music when she was very young, and she then began creating her own music style while acting in plays such as The Wizard of Oz in school.

She signed to JMT, the Munich-based label, and released her first album Point of View in 1986. She worked on music with other popular musicians such as Jean-Paul Bourelly and James Weidman. Her voice is considered unique because of the way she is able to hold her pitches, change her tone, and really express words.

Wilson signed with Blue Note Records in 1993 and released Blue Light ‘Til Dawn, which was her first breakthrough album. In 1996, she won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. She participated in Wynton Marsalis’ composition Blood on the Fields, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. She was also invited to perform in Chicago, Illinois with the famous late Miles Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in 1999. She has collaborated with several other popular artists as a guest vocalist and she has also won numerous additional awards for her works.