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Creativity Quote by Cassandra Wilson

"My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences"

About this Quote

Cassandra Wilson is smuggling a whole aesthetic into a family anecdote: “loud,” “wild,” and lovingly unpolished. She’s not name-dropping a conservatory pedigree or a pantheon of canonical jazz greats; she’s pointing to a domestic origin story where power comes before permission. The “too” matters. It suggests singing as an ordinary practice in the house, not a rarefied talent bestowed on a chosen few. That casual inheritance quietly argues that artistry is less a lightning bolt than a lineage.

Calling her grandmother’s voice “really loud” is also a stealth rebuke to the way women’s voices are historically policed: be pretty, be small, don’t take up space. Wilson reframes volume as virtue, not vulgarity. “Wild kind of singing” widens the aperture even further. Wild implies instinct, risk, a sound that doesn’t apologize for breaking the neat borders of genre or “good taste.” It’s a clue to Wilson’s own career-long pull toward earthy timbres and interpretive freedom: the voice as an instrument that can roughen, moan, bend, and testify.

“I count her among my influences” lands as both tenderness and manifesto. It elevates an unsung elder to the status usually reserved for famous men on album liner notes. The subtext is cultural: Black musical tradition often travels through kitchens, churches, and front porches as much as through stages. Wilson’s intent is to legitimize that route, insisting that the roots of innovation are frequently personal, intimate, and unapologetically loud.

Quote Details

TopicGrandparents
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Wilson, Cassandra. (n.d.). My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-sang-too-and-she-was-really-loud-46313/

Chicago Style
Wilson, Cassandra. "My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-sang-too-and-she-was-really-loud-46313/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My grandmother sang, too, and she was really loud. It was this wild kind of singing. I count her among my influences." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-grandmother-sang-too-and-she-was-really-loud-46313/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is a Musician from USA.

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