January 5, 2009 -- Mississippi Blues Trail Dedicates 100th Marker in Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour today announced the dedication of the 100th Mississippi Blues Trail Marker to honor Cassandra Wilson at 10 a.m. January 7, 2010. A ceremony and reception will be held at the Sam M. Brinkley Middle School located at Ridgeway Street and Albermarle Road in Jackson.

Celebration of the 100th marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail will continue later in the day with a reception at Hal and Mals beginning at 5:30 p.m., which will kick off the Mississippi Blues Marathon.

"There’s no question that the 100th marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest voices in American arts, “Gov. Barbour said. "Cassandra Wilson's collection blues, jazz standards and musical style sets her apart. She is truly one of Mississippi's musical treasures.”

Although often categorized as a jazz artist, Wilson’s music spans many genres, including the blues. Since the early ‘90s her seven CDs on the Blues Note label have included covers of songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Son House and Mississippi Fred McDowell as well as her own blues-influenced compositions. Her CD Belly of the Sun, which was recorded largely in Mississippi, featured other Mississippi musicians, whose music straddles blues and jazz, including Jesse Robinson, Olu Daru, Abie “Boogaloo” Ames, and Rhonda Richmond. She has received Grammy awards for her CDs New Moon Daughter and Loverly.

As a child in Jackson, Wilson studied both clarinet and piano and later learned to play the guitar. Her father, Herman Fowlkes, Jr., was an active jazz musician in the Jackson area, and in the 1950s appeared on recordings by Sonny Boy Williamson II for the Trumpet label. A native of the Chicago area, Fowlkes came to Mississippi as trumpeter in an Army band. He later graduated from Jackson State University and worked as a music instructor.

During her high school years Wilson performed in local funk, pop, and R&B bands, and began performing jazz after being encouraged by drummer Alvin Fielder, a member of the local Black Arts Music Society, and in 1982 moved to New York City, where she worked with the experimental jazz collective M-Base and began her recording career in the mid-‘80s.

Mississippi is a destination for music lovers. Gov. Barbour created the Mississippi Blues Trail to recognize the talents of the state’s countless musicians in the Birthplace of America’s Music. When completed more than 100 sites will offer an unforgettable journey into Blues history.

The Mississippi Blues Trail markers are funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and by support from the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Mississippi Department of Transportation, Delta State University and the Mississippi Development Authority. To submit information on the musicians, sites, and promoters honored by the Mississippi Blues Trail, contact: Jim O’Neal, Mississippi Blues Trail Research Director (816-931-0383, bluesoterica@aol.com).

For more information, visit the Mississippi Blues Trail on the web at msbluestrail.org or the official MDA/Tourism site visitmississippi.org. To contact the Mississippi Blues Trail office in Jackson, contact Alex Thomas (601-359-3297, athomas@mississippi.org) or Leigh Portwood (601-359-3061, lportwood@mississippi.org).