Cassandra Wilson, the 2-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, dies at 70

NEW YORK (AP) — Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning jazz singer, songwriter and producer has died. She was 70.

Dubbed America's best singer by Time magazine in 2001, Wilson was best known for her genre-bending voice, which expanded the boundaries of traditional blues-based jazz and worked effortlessly across folk, pop, R&B, country and beyond. At the heart of all her work was her idiosyncratic contralto, a soulful sound distinctly tied to her roots.

As Jon Batiste put it in a eulogy on Wednesday, Wilson sounded like the South.

She died in her native Jackson, Mississippi, on Tuesday morning, the Hinds County Coroner Jeramiah Howard confirmed.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Cassandra Wilson, the Grammy Award-winning and legendary jazz artist. Cassandra Wilson transitioned peacefully at home, surrounded by family, close friends, and her manager,” said a statement from her manager to jazz radio station WBGO.

Born and raised in Jackson to musician Herman B. Fowlkes and teacher Mary Fowlkes, Wilson showed an early love of music listening to Motown, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. At 6, she started piano lessons. She played clarinet in marching bands. She performed at coffeehouses and in cover bands while studying at Millsaps College and Jackson State University.

In the early ‘80s, she mentored under jazz greats in New Orleans before moving to New York City and joining Steve Coleman’s M-Base Collective — eventually becoming its main vocalist.

Her instantly recognizable voice earned her four Grammy nominations and two wins for best jazz vocal album. Those were in 1997 for “New Moon Daughter” and 2009 for “Loverly.”

In 2015, it was Wilson who gave a special concert at the famed Apollo Theater to commemorate the 100th birthday of blues singer Billie Holiday, the legendary American jazz vocalist who died in New York City at age 44. That same year, Wilson released her last album, “Coming Forth by Day,” an homage to Holiday.

In 2022, Wilson was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, one of the highest honors awarded to jazz musicians in the United States.

“She had an unmistakable vocal tone, phrasing and her approach of weaving folkloric, R&B and diasporic music together with experimental and popular genres had a major impact on me,” Batiste said in his tribute to Wilson on Instagram.

“Her Mississippi heritage was always present in everything no matter how expansive her artistry evolved,” he wrote in the caption of a clip showing them together on Brazilian TV in 2009. “She was one of the first people to take me on tour around the world, the great Cassandra Wilson.”

Jackson Mayor John Horhn said the city “has lost an extraordinary native daughter, and the world has lost a singular musical voice.”

“Cassandra Wilson carried the sound, spirit and history of Mississippi with her wherever her music reached,” said the mayor's statement, shared with WJTV. “Her work had rare depth of character and a profound understanding of how music moves people, tells stories and connects generations.”

FILE - Singer Cassandra Wilson performs at the 48th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala at the New in New York on June 15, 2017. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - US jazz musician Cassandra Wilson poses during an interview in Cologne, Germany on Sept. 25, 2003. (AP Photo/Hermann J. Knippertz, File)

FILE - Singer Cassandra Wilson appears at the 48th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala in New York on June 15, 2017. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Cassandra Wilson performs at the JVC Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., on Aug. 10, 2003. (AP Photo/Stew Milne, File)

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court again rejected Missouri congressional maps backed by President Donald Trump on Thursday, a loss for Republicans trying to maintain control of the House in the pivotal midterm elections.

The decision appears to clear the way for the state to use a map passed in 2022, as the state's highest court ordered.

It's part of a pitched legal battle that has created confusion for voters and others shortly before ballots begin going out for the November elections. The Trump administration had urged the court to keep the president’s preferred maps, which were aimed at gaining one additional GOP House seat.

No Supreme Court justices publicly dissented from the brief order. It did not detail the court’s legal reasoning, as is typical in emergency appeals.

Meanwhile, the legal fight featuring dueling orders from different courts continued to unfold in Missouri with a contempt hearing for Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins.

The state's highest court ordered him to answer for sticking with the Trump-backed map rather than following its orders to use districts passed after the last census.

But until the Supreme Court weighed in, Hoskins could point to a competing order from a federal judge requiring the use of the new map.

The Supreme Court's decision likely means Missouri will run the general election with a different congressional map than was used in the primary. Some people might not be able to vote for the same candidate they chose in the primary. It’s an unusual situation that leaves Missouri without a clear-cut example to follow.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Missouri’s battle over its congressional districts has spanned more than a year and spawned confusion over which districts will be in place for voters.

It was the second Republican-led state, after Texas, to enact new districts after Trump urged Republicans last year to redraw House districts to their advantage ahead of the midterm elections.

The revised districts target a Kansas City-based seat held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by shedding parts into neighboring districts and stretching the remainder into rural Republican areas. The goal is to help Republicans win seven of the state’s eight House seats in the midterm elections.

Redistricting opponents collected hundreds of thousands of petition signatures seeking to force a statewide vote on the new districts. They submitted the signatures in December. But Hoskins waited until August — on the same day as Missouri’s primary — to reject the petition. Hoskins asserted that a referendum petition could not be used for congressional redistricting.

The delay allowed Missouri to use the new districts in its August primary. Republican state officials have argued it would violate voters' federal rights to switch districts before the general election.

But the Missouri Supreme Court last week ordered Hoskins to put the redistricting referendum on the November ballot, which he did. It also ruled that the new districts never became law and instead were suspended retroactively to the December petition submission.

The state then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state court decision. Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected their request.

The court barred Hoskins from using the new map and said the old map — passed by Republican lawmakers in 2022 after the last census — must be used in the November election.

The group People Not Politicians Missouri applauded the Supreme Court decisions that left the state court ruling in place. “The law is the law, the Missouri constitution is clear as was the Missouri Supreme Court," said Executive Director Richard von Glahn. "The courts have settled this, now it’s up to Missouri voters to finish the job and vote NO on Proposition A.”

Whitehurst reported from Washington.

FILE - Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins talks to reporters Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at his office in the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb, File)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, people opposed to a congressional redistricting plan rally outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo., Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)