Nancy Wilson

Nancy Wilson

born on 20/2/1937 in Chillicothe, OH, United States

died on 13/12/2018 in Pioneertown, CA, United States

Nancy Wilson (jazz singer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nancy Wilson (jazz singer)

Nancy Wilson (born February 20, 1937) is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist.[1] She has received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".[2]

Background

On February 20, 1937, Nancy Wilson was the first of six children born to Olden Wilson (iron foundry worker) and Lillian Ryan (domestic worker) in Chillicothe, Ohio.[3][4] Nancy's father would buy records to listen to at home. At an early age Nancy heard recordings from Billy Eckstine, Nat Cole, and Jimmy Scott with Lionel Hampton's Big Band. Nancy says: "The juke joint down on the block had a great jukebox and there I heard Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, LaVerne Baker, Little Esther".[5] Wilson became aware of her talent while singing in church choirs, imitating singers as a young child,and performing in her grandmother's house during summer visits.[4] By the age of four, she knew she would eventually become a singer.

At the age of 15, while a student at West High School (Columbus, Ohio), she won a talent contest sponsored by local television station WTVN. The prize was an appearance on a twice-a-week television show, Skyline Melodies, which she ended up hosting.[6] She also worked clubs on the east side and north side of Columbus, Ohio, from the age of 15 until she graduated from West High School, at age 17.

Unsure of her future as an entertainer, she entered college to pursue teaching. She spent one year at Ohio's Central State College (now Central State University) before dropping out and following her original ambitions. She auditioned and won a spot with Rusty Bryant's Carolyn Club Big Band in 1956. She toured with them throughout Canada and the Midwest in 1956 to 1958.[7] While in this group, Nancy made her first recording under Dots Records.[4]

Career

When Nancy met Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, he suggested that she should move to New York City, believing that the big city would be the venue in which her career could bloom. In 1959, she relocated to New York with a goal of obtaining Cannonballs manager John Levy as her manager and Capitol Records as her label.[8] Within four weeks of her arrival in New York she got her first big break, a call to fill in for Irene Reid at "The Blue Morocco". The club booked Wilson on a permanent basis; she was singing four nights a week and working as a secretary for the New York Institute of Technology during the day. John Levy sent demos "Guess Who I Saw Today", "Sometimes Im Happy", and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960.

Nancys debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today", was so successful that between April 1960 and July 1962 Capitol Records released five Nancy Wilson albums. Her first album, Like in Love, displayed her talent in Rhythm and Blues, with the hit R&B song "Save Your Love for Me." Adderley suggested that she should steer away from her original pop style and gear her music toward jazz and ballads.[4] In 1962, they collaborated and produced the album Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, which propelled her to national prominence. Between March 1964 and June 1965, four of Wilson's albums hit the Top 10 on Billboard's Top LPs chart. In 1963 "Tell Me The Truth" became her first truly major hit, leading up to her performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964 the turning point of her career, garnering critical acclaim from coast to coast.[9] It was covered in Time magazine: She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller.[10] In 1964 Nancy released what became her most successful hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am", which peaked at No. 11. From 1963 to 1971 Wilson logged eleven songs on the Hot 100, including two Christmas singles. However, "Face It Girl, It's Over" was the only remaining non-Christmas song to crack the Top 40 for Wilson (#29, in 1968).

After doing numerous television guest appearances, Wilson eventually got her own series on NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show (1967-1968), which won an Emmy in 1975.[4] Over the years she has appeared on many popular television shows from I Spy (more or less playing herself as a Las Vegas singer in the 1966 episode "Lori," and a similar character in the 1973 episode "The Confession" of The F.B.I.[11]), Room 222, Hawaii Five-O, Police Story, The Jack Paar Program, The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show (1966), The Danny Kaye Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Kraft Music Hall, The Sinbad Show,[4] The Cosby Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Soul Food, New York Undercover, and recently Moesha, and The Parkers.[12][13] She also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffith Show, The Tonight Show, The Arsenio Hall Show and The Flip Wilson Show.[4] She was in the 1993 Robert Townsend's The Meteor Man and in the film, The Big Score. She also appeared on The Lou Rawls Parade of Stars and the March of Dime Telethon.[4]

She was signed by Capitol records in the late 1970s and in an attempt to broaden her appeal she cut the album Life, Love and Harmony, an album of soulful, funky dance cuts that included the track "Sunshine", which was to become one of her most sought-after recordings (albeit among supporters of the rare soul scene with whom she would not usually register).

In the 1980s, she recorded five albums for Japanese labels because she preferred recording live, and American labels frequently did not give her that option. She gained such wide popularity that she was selected as the winner of the annual Tokyo Song Festivals.[4]

In 1982 she recorded with Hank Jones and the Great Jazz Trio. In that same year she recorded with Griffith Park Band whose members included Chick Corea and Joe Henderson. In 1987 she participated in a PBS show entitled Newport Jazz 87 as the singer of a jazz trio with John Williams and Roy McCurdy.[7]

In 1982 she also signed with CBS, her albums here including The Two Of Us (1984), duets with Ramsey Lewis produced by Stanley Clarke; Forbidden Lover (1987), including the title-track duet with Carl Anderson; and A Lady With A Song, which became her 52nd album release in 1989. In 1989 Nancy Wilson in Concert played as a television special.[4]

In the early 1990s, Nancy recorded an album paying tribute to Johnny Mercer with co-producer Barry Manilow entitled With My Lover Beside Me. In this decade she also recorded two other albums, Love, Nancy and her sixtieth album If I had it My Way.[4] In the late 1990s, she teamed up with MCG Jazz, a youth-education program of the Manchester Craftsmens Guild,[14] nonprofit, minority-directed, arts and learning organization located in Pittsburgh, PA.

In 1995, Nancy Wilson performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival in 1997.[7] In 1999, she hosted a show in honor of Ella Fitzgerald entitled Forever Ella on the A & E network.[4]

All the proceeds from 2001's A Nancy Wilson Christmas went to support the work of MCG Jazz.[15] Wilson was the host on NPR's Jazz Profiles,[16] from 1996 to 2005. This series profiled the legends and legacy of jazz through music, interviews and commentary. Wilson and the program were the recipients of the George Foster Peabody Award in 2001.[17]

Wilson's second and third album with MCG Jazz, R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) (2005), and Turned to Blue (2007), both won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Wilson shocked audience members at B.B. King's Blues Club and Grill in New York on May 26, 2011, by announcing that the performance would be her last club date before retiring. Miss Wilson's remarks came at the start of her show and produced gasps and shouts of "No!" from a startled sold-out house. "I want to go home...and stay home," she said, explaining her decision.

Awards and honors

In 1964, Nancy won her first Grammy Award for the best rhythm and blues recording for the album How Glad I Am. She was featured as a "grand diva" of jazz in a 1992 edition of Essence.[18] In the same year, she also received the Whitney Young, Jr. Award from the Urban League. In 1998, she was a recipient of the Playboy Reader Poll Award for best jazz vocalist.[4]

In 1986, she was dubbed the Global Entertainer of the Year by the World Conference of Mayors. In 1993, she received an award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1993; the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame Award in 1998, and was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999. She received the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1994.[19] Nancy has received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991, at 6541 Hollywood Blvd.[20] She received honorary degrees from the Berklee School of Music and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Wilson has a street named after her in her hometown of Chillicothe, Ohio. She co-founded the Nancy Wilson Foundation, which exposes inner-city children to the country.[18]

Wilson was the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships award in 2004, the highest honors that the United States government bestows upon jazz musicians.[21] The 2004 NAACP Image Awards for Best Recording Jazz Artist. In 2005, the UNCF Trumpet Award celebrating African-American achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP in Chicago, and Oprah Winfreys Legends Award.

In September 2005, Nancy was inducted on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Wilson was a major figure in civil rights marches of the 1960s. Nancy Wilson said, "This award means more to me than anything else I have ever received."[22]

Times.com, August 20, 2006: "It's been a long career for the polished Wilson, whose first albums appeared in the 1960s, and she faces that truth head-on in such numbers as 'These Golden Years' and 'I Don't Remember Ever Growing Up'. Shorter breathed these days, she can still summon a warm, rich sound and vividly tell a song's story. With a big band behind her in 'Taking a Chance on Love', she also shows there's plenty of fire in her autumnal mood".[23]

At the Hollywood Bowl, August 29, 2007, Nancy Wilson celebrated her 70th birthday with an all-star event hosted by Arsenio Hall. Ramsey Lewis and his trio performed "To Know Her Is To Love Her".

Personal life

Wilson married her first husband, drummer Kenny Dennis, in 1960. In 1963, their son, Kenneth (Kacy) Dennis, Jr., was born, and by 1970, they divorced. On May 22, 1973, she married a Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Wiley Burton. She gave birth to Samantha Burton in 1975, and the couple adopted Sheryl Burton in 1976. As a result of her marriage, she abstained from performing in various venues, such as supper clubs. In this decade, she focused on her family, relocating to Pioneertown, California, to raise her children in a rural setting.

For the following two decades, she successfully juggled her personal life and her career. In November 1998, both of her parents died: she calls this year the most difficult of her life.[4] In August 2006, Wilson was hospitalized with anemia and potassium deficiency, and was on I.V. sustenance while undergoing a complete battery of tests. She was unable to attend the UNCF Evening of Stars Tribute to Aretha Franklin and had to cancel an engagement. All of her other engagements were on hold, pending doctors reports for that month. In March 2008, she was hospitalized for lung complications, recovered and claimed to be doing well.[24][25] In the same year, her husband, Wiley Burton, died after suffering from renal cancer.[26]

Grammy history

  • Career Wins: 3
  • Career Nominations: 20[27]
Nancy Wilson Grammy History
Year Category Genre Title Label Result
2007 Best Jazz Vocal Album Jazz Turned to Blue MCG Jazz Winner
2005 Best Jazz Vocal Album Jazz R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) MCG Jazz Winner
1964 Female Vocal Performance R&B "How Glad I Am" Capitol Winner

Discography

Hit singles

Year Single Chart positions
US US
R&B
US
AC
1962 "Save Your Love For Me" 11
1963 "Tell Me the Truth" 73 22
1964 "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" 11 45 2
"I Wanna Be With You" 57 9
"And Satisfy" 106
1965 "Don't Come Running Back To Me" 58
"Welcome, Welcome" 125
"Where Does That Leave Me" 30
"I'll Only Miss Him When I Think Of Him" 33
1966 "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" 84 10
"You've Got Your Troubles" 48 20
1968 "Face It Girl, It's Over" 29 15 28
"Peace of Mind" 55 24 34
"In a Long White Room" 117 31
1969 "You'd Better Go" 111 44
"Got It Together" 114
"Can't Take My Eyes Off You" 52 27 28
1970 "This Girl Is a Woman Now" 32
1971 "Now I'm a Woman" 93 41
1974 "Streetrunner" 46
"You're As Right As Rain" 10
1975 "He Called Me Baby" 74
"Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" 54
1976 "Now" 91
"In My Loneliness (When We Were One)" 96
1977 "I've Never Been To Me" 47
1978 "I'm Gonna Get Ya" 94
1979 "Life, Love and Harmony" 83
1990 "Don't Ask My Neighbors" 83
1991 "Do You Still Dream About Me" 64
1994 "Love Won't Let Me Wait" 65
"I Can't Make You Love Me" 87

Albums

Year Title Genre Label Notes
2006 Turned to Blue Jazz MCG Jazz Won Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2005 Live From Las Vegas Jazz Capitol Live, recorded 1968
2004 R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) Jazz MCG Jazz Won Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album
2003 Simple Pleasures Jazz MCG Jazz with Ramsey Lewis
2002 Meant to Be Jazz MCG Jazz with Ramsey Lewis
2001 A Nancy Wilson Christmas Jazz MCG Jazz
1997 If I Had My Way Jazz Columbia
1994 Love, Nancy Jazz Columbia
1991 With My Lover Beside Me Jazz Columbia with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, music by Barry Manilow
1990 Lady with a Song Jazz Epic/Sony
1988 Nancy Now Jazz Epic/Sony
1987 Forbidden Lover Jazz Epic/Sony
1985 Keep You Satisfied Jazz Columbia
1984 The Two of Us Jazz Columbia with Ramsey Lewis
1984 Godsend Jazz Interface
1983 I'll Be a Song Jazz Interface Records
1983 Your Eyes Jazz Columbia
1982 What's New Jazz EMI Japan
1980 Take My Love Jazz Capitol
1980 At My Best Jazz ASI Records
1979 Life, Love and Harmony Jazz/Soul Capitol
1979 Nancy Naturally Jazz Capitol
1978 Music On My Mind Jazz Capitol
1977 I've Never Been to Me Jazz Capitol
1976 This Mother's Daughter Jazz Capitol
1975 Come Get to This Jazz Capitol
1974 All In Love Is Fair Jazz Capitol
1973 I Know I Love Him Jazz Capitol
1972 Free Again Jazz Pickwick
1971 Kaleidoscope Jazz Capitol
1971 How Glad I Am Jazz Capitol
1971 Right to Love Jazz Capitol
1971 Who Can I Turn To Jazz Blue Note
1971 For Once In My Life Jazz Capitol
1971 Double Play Jazz Capitol
1970 Now I'm a Woman Jazz Capitol
1970 Can't Take My Eyes Off You Jazz Capitol
1969 Hurt So Bad Jazz Capitol
1969 Close Up Jazz Capitol
1969 Son of a Preacher Man Jazz Capitol
1969 Nancy Jazz Capitol
1969 But Beautiful [28] Jazz Capitol
1968 Sound of Nancy Wilson Jazz Capitol
1968 The Best of Nancy Wilson Jazz Capitol
1968 Easy Jazz Capitol
1968 Welcome to My Love Jazz Capitol
1967 Lush Life Jazz Capitol
1967 Just for Now Jazz Capitol
1967 Nancy Naturally Jazz Capitol
1967 Tender Loving Care Jazz Capitol
1967 A Touch of Today Jazz Capitol
1966 From Broadway with Love Jazz Capitol
1966 Gentle Is My Love Jazz Capitol
1965 Today My Way Jazz Capitol
1965 The Nancy Wilson Show!
Jazz Capitol
1964 Today, Tomorrow, Forever Jazz Capitol
1963 How Glad I Am Jazz Capitol
1963 Yesterday's Love Songs/Today's Blues Jazz Blue Note
1963 Hollywood My Way Jazz Capitol
1963 Broadway My Way Jazz Capitol
1962 Hello Young Lovers Jazz Capitol
1962 Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley Jazz Capitol with Cannonball Adderley
1961 The Swingin's Mutual! Jazz Blue Note with George Shearing
1960 Something Wonderful Jazz Capitol
1959 Like in Love Jazz Capitol

Filmography

DVD concert films

  • 2001: Nancy Wilson at Carnegie Hall [29]
  • 2005: Great Women Singers of the 20th Century Nancy Wilson[30]

References

  1. Wilson, Nancy. (2007-06-19) Nancy Wilson, NPR Biography. Npr.org. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  2. Ebony (Magazine/Journal), March 1, 2007. Nancy Wilson (Center Stage) (Biography)
  3. Nancy Wilson. Nndb.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 Nancy Wilson Biography Retrieved 23 June 2009
  5. Nancy Wilson: 2004 NEA Jazz Master. nea.gov
  6. Nancy Wilson. (PDF) . ohioana.org. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Wilson, Nancy (Sue). Oxford University Press
  8. Miss Nancy Wilson Biography. Missnancywilson.com (2004-08-25). Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  9. Nancy's own bio. Missnancywilson.com (2004-08-25). Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  10. Time Magazine, Wilson, Female Vocal, Friday, July 17, 1964
  11. http://www.tv.com/shows/the-fbi/the-confession-157552
  12. Nancy's website. Missnancywilson.com (2004-08-25). Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  13. Nancy Wilson (II). IMDb Database
  14. Manchester Craftsmens Guild
  15. CD Title: A Nancy Wilson Christmas. jazzreview.com
  16. Jazz Profiles. Npr.org. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  17. 2001 Peabody goes to Jazz Profiles. Peabody.uga.edu. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  18. 18.0 18.1 Wilson,Nancy-1937 Retrieved 24 June 2009
  19. Wilson, Nancy-1937 Retrieved 24 2009
  20. List of stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  21. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships. 2004 Fellowships Recipients. nea.gov
  22. Footsteps of Civil Rights Leaders Placed in International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site. Prweb.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  23. Porterfield, Christopher. (2006-08-20) 6 Jazz Singers Worth A Listen. Time.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  24. singer Nancy Wilson treated for a collapsed lung Retrieved 23 June 2009
  25. Nancy Wilson 'doing fine' recovering from lung collapse Retrieved 23 June 2009
  26. Nancy Wilson's husband dies Retrieved 23 June 2009
  27. Thursday, March 1, 2007, Music Preview: Another side of Nancy Wilson (Retrieved August 19, 2007)
  28. Allmusic ''But Beautiful'' Nancy Wilson. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  29. VIEW DVD Listing. View.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-29.
  30. Great Women Singers of the 20th Century: Nancy Wilson (Video 2005). IMDb database

External links

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