Cassandra Wilson, born in Jackson Mississippi in December of 1955, is an African American musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer. Appraised nationally as one of the most successful female Jazz singers, Wilson was named “America’s Best Singer” by Time magazine in 2001.

She has recorded more than twenty releases and has been featured by musicians such as Terence Blanchard, Bill Frisell, Charlie Haden, Angelique Kidjo, and Luther Vandross. Wilson has also been critically acclaimed for her performance in Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields.

She is a two-time Grammy Award winner. Other honors include, Downbeat Female Jazz Vocalist of the Year awards (1995-96), the Miles Davis Prize by the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (1999), the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Artistic Excellence in Music (2009), a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail (2010), and honorary doctorates from Millsaps College, the New School, and Berklee College of Music.