Since multiple Grammy Award winner Cassandra Wilson released the album Blue Light ‘Til Dawn on Blue Note in 1992, she has inspired generations of jazz vocalists to look beyond the Great American Songbook. The singer with the unmistakable, velvety timbre has also constantly broken new ground herself. Together with Steve Coleman, she was a founding member of the New York-based M-Base Collective. But blues, folk, and country are also part of her repertoire. These are interconnected genres; they all stem from the same source, Mississippi, just like Wilson herself. Amid the many achievements on her résumé, she takes particular pride in the fact that, in her hometown of Jackson, she has a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. Wilson has performed at the festival many times and has never failed to surprise, whether it was with a collaboration with T Bone Burnett or a tribute to Billie Holiday.
