The O'Zone — Mississippi Thunderbird: Cassandra Wilson
She was born 70 years ago in Jackson, Mississippi, during the days of turbulence and civil unrest. Medger Evers (the civil rights leader) was murdered just minutes away from then-7-year-old Cassandra’s home in 1963.
She describes a childhood that was wrought with the complexity of growing up in a segregated Jackson that included racial strife and, yet, also included (in her words) “a rich, matriarchal cultural environment.” She recalls the pervasive tension in the air, but also notes the culture of Southern hospitality where contradictory behaviors co-existed within many around her.
As she grew up in Mississippi, the Blues was as thick as the humid atmosphere but her parents strived to distance themselves from the feelings of inequity and pain that they associated with blues music. However, Cassandra embraced it, and leaned into it as an expression of Jackson’s culture and history.
In the New York Times, she once recalled that ''There's a color, cadence, timbre and tone in Mississippi that contains all our memories, dreams, fears and hopes,'' an essence she still carries with her.
That essence is also evidenced by her interpretation of the Robert Johnson classic “Hellhound On My Trail”:
And, for reference, here’s Robert Johnson’s 1936 recording of the tune.
LAND OF THE GREAT RIVER
Mississippi. The word comes from the Ojibwe nation. Misi-ziibi in Annishinaabe, meaning Great River. From the Choctaw, it’s “River possessing deep age”; misha (beyond reckoning), sipokni (it is old), sipi (it is very old), and okina
(water path)...
For thousands of years, the land was home of the Mississippian culture known for building earthen mounds and by the time DeSoto arrived in 1540, the area was inhabited by Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez nations. After the French/Indian war control of the region shifted from France, Great Britain and Spain before the United States established The Mississippi Territory in 1798. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced the eventual relocation of many North American tribes to what was then known as “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma). Only the Choctaw Nation remains officially in Mississippi today. The rest marched West in the “Trail of Tears.”
There is a shared history of displacement among indigenous peoples and kidnapped peoples. Cassandra Wilson, the Mississippi Thunderbird, draws from her roots in ways that are strong and intentional.
JACKSON TO M-BASE TO NEA JAZZ MASTER
Wilson has often talked about being relevant to her own times while continuing to push her music forward into the future as well.
Among her key musical influences, Miles Davis stands out: particularly in her tone and timbre, the softness with which she enunciates her lyrics and the dynamics overall. She is chill like Miles. Her voice is much like a Harmon mute caressing syllable and lyric.
Her musical recipe is roughly as follows: mix the subtlety of Miles with emotional authenticity of Robert Johnson and Billie Holiday and the defiance and integrity of Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln. Add the daring of Betty Carter, then sprinkle in the singer/songwriter influence of Joni Mitchell mixed with the clear intention to seek her own voice in the midst of these myriad influences.
Her courage in finding her own way and the fire of the M-Base Collective out of Brooklyn all inform Ms. Wilson.
So, it is absolutely no wonder she was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2022.
Over the years, Wilson has traveled to her influences. First to New Orleans where Earl Turbinton and Ellis Marsalis were mentors (adding still more authenticity)
Then, she moved to New York and joined forces with Geri Allen, Greg Osby, and Steve Coleman (of M-Base), all of whom convinced her to look outside the book of standards for material. While in Brooklyn, her focus became aligned with improvisation within her singing.
In most jazz music, when there is a vocal component, the song is built around the singer. But, while in M-Base, she built her voice as an instrument to integrate within the musical form.
THE ALBUMS: TWENTY TIMES INCREDIBLE!
Miss Cassandra has stepped up as a leader 20 times and each time the results have been heroic, epic, brave and memorable! Sourced directly from her Mississippi roots and the Matriarchal society of her upbringing, she embodies the energy of a “Queen!”
She works frequently with others on their projects but is also confident enough to rely on her crewes to accomplish what she has in mind with each recording.
While I became aware of her talent from her early JMT recording Jumpworld (1990), it wasn’t until she signed with Blue Note and recorded Blue Light ‘Til Dawn (1993) and followed it up with the Grammy-award-winning New Moon Daughter (1995) that I realized hers was a phenomenal talent.
THUNDERBIRD
Cassandra named her fifteenth album (released in 2006) after the totem of the Thunderbird, a protector represented with rolling clouds and thunder. The song “Go To Mexico” features chants from the Tchapatoulis Mardi Gras Indians.
Wilson explicitly stated her intent was to pay tribute to the Native American spirit and its context in the broader scope of culture, noting her music is a cultural bridge among many communities.
She sought to change her approach because…THAT’S WHAT ARTISTS DO. So she reached out to T Bone Burnett and Keefus Ciancia as she wanted to explore deeper material with a collaborative base they brought to the album.
TRIBUTES TO MILES AND LADY DAY
Miles Davis and Billie Holiday are very important to Cassandra Wilson. Thus, her tributes are sincere, heartfelt and necessary to her own soul. She emphasized that her goal with these albums was to reinterpret rather than imitate. 1999 saw the release of her Davis tribute album, Traveling Miles.
And, in 2015, she released an album in tribute to Holiday, titled Coming Forth by Day.
Wilson once noted that “an imitation of Billie would almost be insulting,” and that Davis’s “Sketches of Spain was so expansive, so wide it’s an incredible album.”
Her treatments of the songs on both albums were intended to touch the spirit of the music. Their art comes forth in her voice in contrast to their literal sounds.
THAT’S WHAT ARTISTS DO.
There is so much more than a husky, dusky contralto in her presentation, she is history personified.
And here’s one more from Ms. Wilson, “Another Country” in collaboration with guitarist and composer Fabrizio Sotti.
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