Accessibility links
Cassandra Wilson Cassandra Wilson artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

Cassandra Wilson

Musicians in Their Own Words

Musicians in Their Own Words: Cassandra Wilson

Grammy-winning singer Cassandra Wilson arrived on the music scene in 1990s with her innovative take on jazz. Wilson tells how her unusual approach has its roots in the music of trumpeter Miles Davis.

Musicians in Their Own Words: Cassandra Wilson

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1748610/1749721" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

Cassandra Wilson's Billie Holiday tribute album is titled Coming Forth By Day. Mark Seliger/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Mark Seliger/Courtesy of the artist

Music Interviews

Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

On Coming Forth By Day, one of today's premier jazz singers pays an imaginative tribute to one of her idols, born 100 years ago. As Wilson says, a simple imitation "would be almost insulting."

Cassandra Wilson 'Couldn't Wait' To Reinvent The Billie Holiday Songbook

Listen · 8:34
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/397321378/397679954" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Cassandra Wilson On Piano Jazz
Marco Glaviano/Courtesy of the artist

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz

Cassandra Wilson On Piano Jazz

In 1999, host Marian McPartland welcomed the vocalist in for an hour of jazz standards, including "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" and "Old Devil Moon."

Cassandra Wilson In The Studio

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/356943682/356943948" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
A Tribute To Abbey Lincoln On JazzSet

Backstage at the Kennedy Center tribute concert to Abbey Lincoln, left to right: Dee Dee Bridgewater, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves. Becca Pulliam/WBGO hide caption

toggle caption
Becca Pulliam/WBGO

JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater

A Tribute To Abbey Lincoln On JazzSet

WBGO

Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson sing from the Abbey Lincoln songbook.

A Tribute To Abbey Lincoln On JazzSet

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/145186772/263135151" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Best Music Of 2008

Geniuses Collide In 2008's Best Jazz

90.5 WESA

Cross-pollination of excellent musicians made for some amazing jazz in 2008. The year's best CDs feature numerous musicians collaborating with each other on a wide variety of recordings. Hearing the best musicians work with other geniuses is a wonderful thing to witness. Here are 10 of the best jazz CDs of the year.

Hear Shaunna Morrison Machosky Discuss Her Top Pick

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/97753690/98861524" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

Cassandra Wilson Takes Flight on 'Thunderbird'

Jazz star Cassandra Wilson's latest album soars over a swirling array of musical influences. She tells Debbie Elliott about a work that pays tribute to the Native American spirit and the rich traditions of American music.

Cassandra Wilson Takes Flight on 'Thunderbird'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5525831/5526163" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Music Interviews

Vocalist Cassandra Wilson: 'Thunderbird'

Vocalist Cassandra Wilson draws her inspiration for song from some unusual sources. That didn't stop Time magazine from naming her the best singer in America. Ed Gordon talks to the powerhouse singer about what drives her creatively, and about her latest CD, Thunderbird.

Vocalist Cassandra Wilson: 'Thunderbird'

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/5321924/5321925" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Review

Music Reviews

Music Review: 'Glamoured' from Cassandra Wilson

Grammy-winning singer and composer Cassandra Wilson has made a career out of using her jazz and blues skills to transform pop songs. On her latest album, Glamoured, Wilson applies her rich, husky voice to a variety of musical genres. NPR's Michelle Mercer has a review.

Music Review: 'Glamoured' from Cassandra Wilson

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1467034/1467035" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Review

Music Reviews

Music Review: 'Torch' from Various Artists

Torch is a new collection of "torch ballads" from contemporary artists such as Elvis Costello and Cassandra Wilson. The CD combines the sultry pathos of a torch song with electronic rhythms and sympathetic arrangements. Jim Fusilli offers a review.

Music Review: 'Torch' from Various Artists

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1279459/1279460" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Music Interviews

Cassandra Wilson

Last summer jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson decided to return to her native Mississippi to record an album. She and her musicians set up in an old train station and the result of the sessions is her new CD, Belly of the Sun (Blue Note), which contains a mixture of blues, pop and bossa nova. Host Lynn Neary talks with Wilson about the recording, the criticism she has received from critics, and what she learned from the experience.

Cassandra Wilson

Only Available in Archive Formats.
Cassandra Wilson: 'The Guitar Is My Heart'

Cassandra Wilson explores geography, as well as a lifelong relationship with the guitar, on Another Country. Marco Glaviano hide caption

toggle caption
Marco Glaviano

Music Interviews

Cassandra Wilson: 'The Guitar Is My Heart'

Once described by Time as "America's best singer," Wilson explores a lifelong relationship with the guitar on her new album, Another Country.

Cassandra Wilson: 'The Guitar Is My Heart'

Listen · 9:29
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/155576826/155658082" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Gospel Meets Jazz, With Unpredictable Results

Don Byron released Love, Peace, and Soul with his New Gospel Quintet on Feb. 21. Till Krautkraemer/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Till Krautkraemer/Courtesy of the artist

Review

Music Reviews

Gospel Meets Jazz, With Unpredictable Results

Two recent albums, from Don Byron's New Gospel Quintet and Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, offer contrasting perspectives on the intersection of two quintessentially American music styles.

Gospel Meets Jazz, With Unpredictable Results

Listen · 4:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/147519743/148467398" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Cassandra Wilson On JazzSet

Cassandra Wilson. Clay Patrick McBride hide caption

toggle caption
Clay Patrick McBride

Concerts

Cassandra Wilson On JazzSet

WBGO

Wilson's Loverly won the 2009 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album. With a wide variety of standards — from "St. James Infirmary" to "Til There Was You" — she stretches out on Loverly at the Chicago Symphony Center.

Cassandra Wilson On JazzSet

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/102357878/122562029" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

World Cafe

Cassandra Wilson: Soul, Jazz and New Sounds

XPN

Wilson, one of the top jazz singer-songwriters of the '90s, continues to make fine albums that draw heavily from her Southern background. She's constantly tweaked her sound along the way: Last year's Thunderbird even dabbles in hip-hop.

Cassandra Wilson in Studio on World Cafe - 02/08/2007

Listen
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/7291800/7292029" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Browse archive or search npr.org