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Grammy Award-winning American jazz singer Cassandra Wilson has died at the age of 70 in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday.
Her manager, Robert Torre, said in a statement that Wilson died peacefully at home, surrounded by family and close friends.
He described her as a legendary jazz artist, but did not disclose a cause of death.
Wilson’s family and close friends have asked for privacy.
A singer-songwriter and producer, Wilson was celebrated for her rich, expressive contralto voice during a career spanning more than three decades.
She won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1997 for New Moon Daughter, while her album Loverly won Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2009.
Wilson also played a leading role in Blood on the Fields, a 1997 oratorio by Wynton Marsalis that became the first jazz work to win the Pulitzer Prize.
Throughout her career, she collaborated with several prominent artists, including saxophonists Steve Coleman and Greg Osby, as well as hip-hop group The Roots.
Musician Jon Batiste paid tribute to Wilson on social media, saying he had learned a great deal from her and was deeply saddened by her death.
Batiste praised her distinctive vocal tone and phrasing, as well as her ability to blend folkloric, R&B and diasporic music with experimental and popular genres.
He said Wilson’s musical style had a major influence on him and described her sound as unmistakably Southern.
“I learned so much from her and I am so sad she has passed away,” Jon Batiste wrote.
“She had an unmistakable vocal tone and phrasing, and her approach of weaving folkloric, R&B and diasporic music together with experimental and popular genres had a major impact on me.
“She sounded like the south.”
