| Cassandra Wilson |
Cassandra Wilson on the cover of her 2003 Glamoured album. | | Background information | | Born | December 4, 1955 (1955-12-04) (age 51)
Jackson, Mississippi, United States | | Genre(s) | Jazz, Blues, | | Occupation(s) | vocalist, songwriter, producer, arranger | | Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, piano | | Years active | 1985—present | | Label(s) | JMT, Winter & Winter, Polygram, DIW, Columbia, Blue Note, EMI | Associated
acts | M-Base Collective | | Website | http://www.cassandrawilson.com | Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
December 4th redirects here. ...
Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ...
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Nickname: Coordinates: Country United States State Mississippi County Hinds Founded 1822 Government - Mayor Frank Melton Area - City 106. ...
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This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. ...
A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ...
In music a singer or vocalist is a type of musician who sings, i. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
A short grand piano, with the top up. ...
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JMT Records was a label that specialised in contemporary jazz. ...
Winter & Winter is a record label that specializes in jazz and improvised music. ...
PolyGram was the name from 1972 of the major label recording company started by Philips as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. ...
Blue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff. ...
The EMI Group (LSE: EMI) is a British music company comprising of the major record company EMI Music which operates several labels, based in Kensington in London, England, and EMI Music Publishing, based in New York. ...
M-Base is a form of modern jazz music which reached its peak in the mid-to-late-80s and early 90s. ...
December 4th redirects here. ...
Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Nickname: Coordinates: Country United States State Mississippi County Hinds Founded 1822 Government - Mayor Frank Melton Area - City 106. ...
Family and Early Life
Cassandra Wilson is the third and youngest child of Herman Fowlkes, Jr., a guitarist, bassist and music teacher; and Mary McDaniel, an elementary school teacher who eventually earned her Ph.D. in education. Between her mother’s love for Motown and her father’s dedication to jazz, Wilson’s parents sparked her early interest in music. Herman Fowlkes, Jr. ...
Motown Records, Inc. ...
Musical Beginnings Like many jazz musicians Wilson’s formal musical education consisted of classical lessons; she studied piano from the age of six to 13 and played clarinet in the middle school concert and marching bands. When she tired of this training, she asked her father to teach her the guitar. Instead, he gave her a lesson in self-reliance—some Mel Bay method books. She explored the instrument on her own, developing what she has described as an “intuitive” approach. During this time she began writing her own songs, adopting a folk style. She sang and played guitar in a folk trio during high school and also appeared in the musical theater productions, crossing racial lines in a recently desegregated school system. Mel Bay Publications is a publisher of materials for musical instrument playing, particularly instructional books that teach a particular instrument or style. ...
For college, Wilson attended Millsaps College and Jackson State University. She graduated with a degree in mass communications. Outside of the classroom, the busy student spent her nights working with R&B, funk, and pop cover bands, also singing in local coffeehouses. The Black Arts Music Society, founded by John Reese and Alvin Fielder, provided her with her first opportunities to perform bebop. Millsaps College is a private liberal arts college in Jackson, Mississippi, supported by the United Methodist Church. ...
Jackson State University, often abridged as Jackson State or by its initials JSU is a historically black university located in Jackson, Mississippi founded in 1877. ...
Bebop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ...
In 1981, she moved to New Orleans for a position as assistant public affairs director for the local television station, WDSU. She did not stay long. Working with mentors who included elder statesmen Earl Turbinton, Alvin Batiste, and Ellis Marsalis, Wilson found encouragement to seriously pursue jazz performance and moved to the New York City area the following year. New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...
Alvin Batiste is a jazz/avant garde clarinetist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...
Ellis Marsalis is the name of father and son jazz musicians, patriarchs of the Marsalis clan. ...
Musical Association with M-Base There her focus turned towards improvisation. Heavily influenced by singers Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter, she fine-tuned her vocal phrasing and scat while studying ear training with trombonist Grachan Moncur, III. Frequenting jam sessions under the tutelage of pianist Sadik Hakim, a Charlie Parker alumnus, she met alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, who encouraged her to look beyond the standard jazz repertoire in favor of developing original material. She 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 (AACM) and Black Artists Group (BAG) that re-imagined the grooves of funk and soul within the context of traditional and avant-garde jazz. Abbey Lincoln (born Anna Marie Wooldridge on August 6, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois) is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and actress, who is widely respected for her writing skills. ...
Betty Carter Betty Carter (May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was a prominent American jazz singer, who was renowned for her improvisational techniques. ...
Grachan Moncur III (born June 3, 1937) is an American jazz trombonist. ...
Sadik Hakim (born Argonne Thornton on July 15 1919 in Duluth, Minnesota; died in New York in 1983) was an American jazz pianist and composer. ...
Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ...
Steve Coleman in Paris, July 2004 Steve Coleman (born 20 September 1956) is an American saxophone player, spontaneous composer, composer and band leader. ...
M-Base is a form of modern jazz music which reached its peak in the mid-to-late-80s and early 90s. ...
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is a non_profit organization, founded in Chicago, Illinois, by pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran. ...
The Black Artists Group (BAG) was a multidisciplinary arts collective that existed in St. ...
Avant-jazz (also known as avant-garde jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines elements of avant-garde art music composition with elements of traditional jazz. ...
Although the voice – typically treated as the focal point of any arrangement in which it is included – was not an obvious choice for M-base’s complex textures or dissonant free melodies, Wilson wove herself into the fabric of these settings with wordless improv and lyrics. She can be heard on Coleman’s Motherland Pulse (1985); On the Edge of Tomorrow (1986); World Expansion (1986); and Sine Die (1987). Adjournment sine die (from the Latin, without day) occurs when an organized bodys existence terminates. ...
At the same time, Wilson recorded and toured with alto saxophonist Henry Threadgill in the avant-garde trio New Air. A decade her senior and an AACM member, Threadgill has been lauded as a composer for his ability to transcend stylistic boundaries, a trait he and Wilson share. Henry Threadgill (born February 15, 1941), Chicago, Illinois, is an American saxophonist, flautist and composer. ...
Solo Career Like fellow M-base artists, Wilson signed to the Munich-based, independent label JMT. She released her first recording as a leader Point of View in 1986. Like the majority of her JMT albums that followed, originals by Wilson in keeping with M-base dominated these sessions; she would also record material by and co-written with Coleman, Jean-Paul Bourelly, and James Weidman as well as a few standards. Her throaty contralto gradually emerges over the course of these recordings, making its way to the foreground. She developed a remarkable ability to stretch and bend pitches, elongate syllables, manipulate tone and timbre from dusky to hollow. JMT may refer to: Jaffe-Mellor Technique Java Measurement Tool Java Mindstorms Tool Jean-Michel Piguet John Michael Talbot John Muir Trust Journal of Music Theory This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share...
Point of View is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
While these recordings established her as a serious musician , Wilson received her first broad critical acclaim for the album of standards recorded in the middle of this period, Blue Skies (1988). Her 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. Blue Skies is a 1946 musical film. ...
In jazz and blues notes added to the major scale for expressive quality, loosely defined by musicians to be an alteration to a scale or chord that makes it sound like the blues. ...
Beginning with Blue Light 'Til Dawn (1993) her repertoire moved towards a broad synthesis of blues, pop, jazz, world music, and country. Although she continued to perform originals and standards, she adopted songs as diverse as Robert Johnson’s “Come On in My Kitchen,” Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville,” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Blue Light Til Dawn is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...
Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, songwriter, and painter. ...
The Monkees were a pop-rock quartet created and based in Los Angeles in 1965 for an NBC American television series of the same name. ...
It has been suggested that Audrey Williams be merged into this article or section. ...
Not only did Wilson effectively reconnect vocal jazz with its blues roots, she was arguably the first to convincingly fashion post-British Invasion pop into jazz, trailblazing a path that many have since followed. Furthermore, producer Craig Street drew from pop production techniques to create a rich ambient environment around her voice, magnifying it and giving sonic depth to Brandon Ross’ sparse but incredibly vivid arrangements, which used steel guitar, violin, accordion, and percussion. Craig Street, born in Oakland, California, is a noted record producer. ...
Wilson’s 1996 album New Moon Daughter won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance. In 1997, she recorded and toured as a featured vocalist with Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize winning composition, Blood on the Fields. New Moon Daughter is a Jazz album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music...
The Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album has been presented since 1977. ...
Wynton Learson Marsalis (b. ...
Blood on the Fields is a three and half hour jazz oratorio, although he did not use this term, by Wynton Marsalis. ...
The late Miles Davis was one of Wilson's greatest influences. In 1989 Wilson performed as the opening act for Davis at the JVC Jazz Festival in Chicago. In 1999 she produced Traveling Miles as a tribute to Davis. The album developed from a series of jazz concerts that she performed at Lincoln Center in November of 1997 in Davis' honor and includes three selections based on Davis' own compositions, in which Wilson adapted the original themes. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Traveling Miles is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Personal Life Wilson was married to Anthony Wilson from 1981 to 1983.[1]
She has a son, Jeris, born in the late 1980s. Her song Out Loud (Jeris' Blues) is from the album She Who Weeps. For many years she and her son lived in Harlem, New York, in an apartment that once belonged to jazz great Duke Ellington.[2] Edward Kennedy “Duke†Ellington (April 29, 1899–May 24, 1974) was an American jazz composer, pianist, and band leader who has been one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music. ...
In 2000, Wilson married actor Isaach de Bankolé, who directed her in the concert film Traveling Miles: Cassandra Wilson (2000). Giulia Boschi as Aimée and Isaach De Bankolé as Protée in Chocolat. ...
Wilson and her mother are members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Alpha Kappa Alpha (ΑΚΑ) Sorority, Incorporated, is Americas first Greek-letter organization established and incorporated by African-American college women. ...
Honors - Received honorary doctorate in the Arts from Millsaps College, 2003
- Named “America’s Best Singer” by Time Magazine in 2001
- Grammy Award for best vocal jazz performance for New Moon Daughter, 1997
- Female Jazz Vocalist of the Year, Down Beat magazine, 1994-1996
(Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
Albums
Solo Point of View is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Track Listing Electromagnolia Dara, Cassandra Wilson 4:45 Lets Face the Music and Dance Irving Berlin 2:31 “Days Aweigh†Jean-Paul Bourelly 3:27 “Subatomic Blues†Cassandra Wilson 4:34 “Apricots on Their Wings†Henry Threadgill 5:49 “If You Only Know How†Cassandra Wilson 5:07 “You...
Blue Skies is a jazz album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Blue Light Til Dawn is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
New Moon Daughter is a Jazz album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Jacques-Laurent Terrasson(November 27, 1966 in Berlin) is a jazz pianist better known as Jacky Terrasson. ...
Traveling Miles is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Belly of the Sun is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Glamoured is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
Thunderbird is an album by Cassandra Wilson. ...
With Steve Coleman - Motherland Pulse (1985)
- World Expansion
- On the Edge of Tomorrow
With M-Base - Anatomy of a Groove
- Dance to the Drums Again (1993)
Soundtracks Soundtracks featuring Cassandra Wilson. Released on Wednesday, March 30, 1994, Jimmy Hollywood is the American comedy film starting Joe Pesci and Christian Slater. ...
Junior, released in 1994, is Arnold Schwarzeneggers third comedy film, which features him teamed up with Danny DeVito, following their previous collaboration, Twins and director Ivan Reitman, who also directed Schwarzenegger in that film and Kindergarten Cop. ...
Ive Got You Under My Skin is a song by Cole Porter. ...
Miami Rhapsody is a 1995 romantic comedy film starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Gil Bellows, Antonio Banderas, Mia Farrow, Paul Mazursky, Kevin Pollak, Barbara Garrick and Carla Gugino. ...
Love Jones is a 1997 romantic drama film written and directed by Theodore Witcher. ...
Love Jones is the original soundtrack to the 1997 film Love Jones. ...
Passions is a multi-Daytime Emmy Award-winning American television soap opera created by veteran writer James E. Reilly. ...
Time After Time was a single by singer Cyndi Lauper, the second from her Shes So Unusual album, and it reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts on June 9, 1984. ...
The Score is a 2001 crime drama. ...
Brown Sugar is a 2002 romantic drama film, written by Michael Elliott and Rick Famuyiwa, and directed by Rick Famuyiwa. ...
Dont Come Knocking is a 2005 film directed by Wim Wenders. ...
Filmography Cassandra Wilson features as a singer in the following films. Junior, released in 1994, is Arnold Schwarzeneggers third comedy film, which features him teamed up with Danny DeVito, following their previous collaboration, Twins and director Ivan Reitman, who also directed Schwarzenegger in that film and Kindergarten Cop. ...
The Score is a 2001 crime drama. ...
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