Cassandra Wilson, the Jackson, Mississippi born NEA Jazz Master and two-time Grammy Award winner, died September 2 in Jackson at age 70, WBGO reports. Her longtime manager Robert Torre said Wilson "transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager," and that the family asks for privacy while memorial arrangements are planned. Critic Gary Giddins praised Wilson as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack" who expanded jazz by incorporating blues, country, and folk; WBGO host Gary Walker recalled first meeting her in Newark in 1982 and highlighted her sultry, smoky renditions, including Bob Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay." Wilson began piano at six, took up guitar at twelve, was performing by the mid 1970s, moved to New York in the early 1980s, helped found Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective, and later pursued a more acoustic context for her vocals. Fellow NEA Jazz Master Dorthaan Kirk remembered Wilson as family and said Wilson called her "Mother Kirk," underscoring the close personal ties she maintained within the jazz community.
