Cassandra Wilson, Presente: How WPFW Honored Our Mississippi Songbyrd
Cassandra Wilson made her transition on the morning of Wednesday, September 2, 2026, at home in Jackson, Mississippi, surrounded by family, close friends and her manager. She was 70. Our Mississippi Songbyrd has taken wings, and the WPFW family has spent this month singing her home.
Out of the Mississippi Soil
Cassandra came up out of the same ground the blues grew from, and she carried that soil into every room she sang in. She started piano at six and guitar by twelve, and she was working as a singer in the South by the mid-'70s before moving north to test herself in New York.
There she became a founding member of the M-Base Collective with saxophonist Steve Coleman, a circle of Black musicians who built their own language instead of waiting on anyone's permission.
She Refused the Box
When she signed with Blue Note, Blue Light 'Til Dawn put Robert Johnson and Joni Mitchell side by side and treated Delta blues, folk and soul as the living classical music of our people. It opened the door for a generation of singers who would not be boxed in by the standard songbook.
She sang a leading role in Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields, an oratorio about enslaved Africans fighting their way toward freedom and the first jazz work to receive a Pulitzer Prize. She earned two Grammy Awards, a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail, and in 2022 the National Endowment for the Arts named her a Jazz Master. Our community knew who she was long before the institutions caught up.
A feminist and a womanist and a singer songwriter beyond compare and one of the brightest lights of the idiom. Katea Stitt, WPFW Program Director and friend of Cassandra
Family to Washington, Family to WPFW
District Curators presented Cassandra's first DC performance in the 1990–91 season. Years later she headlined a benefit for WPFW at Bethesda Blues and Jazz. She showed up for Jazz and Justice Radio, and our programmers showed up for her.
Where WPFW Honored Her
When an ancestor transitions, community radio does what it has always done. Programmers opened up their hours and let her voice fill the air.
- Sep 2Donald TempleLovethology, Wednesday, 9 to 10pmOn the day she passed, Donald gave his second hour to Cassandra.
- Sep 3Tim MastersJazz Masters, Thursday, 7 to 10pmAn extended tribute built into his Thursday evening show.
- Sep 5Bill WaxRoots and Fruits, Saturday, 2 to 4pmAbout 80 minutes of Cassandra, leaning into the blues she was raised on.
- Sep 6Miyuki WilliamsSunday Kind of Love, Sunday, noon to 2pmA full hour of her music.
- Sep 7Katea StittLabor Day Tribute to Cassandra Wilson, Monday, 5 to 6pmThe special hour promoted on air, hosted by a longtime friend who worked with Cassandra across the decades.Still on the archive
- Sep 9Violetta DiamondJazz and Justice: Sophie's Parlor, Wednesday, 3 to 5pmClosed the second hour with "Remembering Cassandra Wilson" (live), "Justice" and "Redemption Song."
- Sep 13Miles WillisMiles Ahead, Sunday, 5 to 6pmA retrospective from her earliest recordings through her stylistic transformation. The phones lit up while it aired.Still on the archive
Beyond these tributes, her voice kept rising all month across the schedule, from Sophie's Parlor to our Sunday programmers.
Hear Her Again
Katea's Labor Day tribute is on the WPFW archive into early November. It's listed under To The East. Miles Willis's retrospective (Miles Ahead, Sunday, September 13, 4pm show) is up through about September 27.
Go to archive.wpfwfm.org, choose the show from the menu or scroll to the date, and press play. Music programs stay up about two weeks and can stream but not download, because of copyright rules.
Cassandra Wilson, presente. Rest in peace and power, Songbyrd.
WPFW keeps the voices of our ancestors on the air because listeners keep WPFW on the air.
Give to WPFWTune in to WPFW 89.3 FM or stream at wpfwfm.org.