Nancy Wilson, acclaimed ‘song stylist’ who defied musical boundaries, dies at 81
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nancy Wilson, an award-winning singer whose beguiling expressiveness in jazz, R&B, gospel, soul and pop made her a crossover recording star for five decades and who also had a prolific career as an actress, activist and commercial spokeswoman, died Dec. 13 at her home in Pioneertown, Calif. She was 81.
Her manager and publicist Devra Hall Levy confirmed the death but did not know the specific cause.
Ms. Wilson resisted the label of “jazz singer” for much of her career, although jazz was the form to which she returned time and again and in which she had her greatest critical and popular success. She considered herself above all “a song stylist,” she once told The Washington Post. “That’s my essence,” she said, “to weave words, to be dramatic.”
She sought to meld the seemingly incongruous styles of her two greatest influences: the ethereal Jimmy Scott and the penetrating and sultry Dinah Washington. Ms. Wilson’s singing was at once regal and vulnerable, and she inspired two generations of singers, including Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker and Nnenna Freelon. “She has such a classy sound, but she’s never afraid to be a woman, or to tell it like it is,” Freelon once told the San Jose Mercury News.
Jazz historian and critic Will Friedwald, in his volume “A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers,” called Ms. Wilson a formidable presence in pop, jazz and blues — “the most important vocalist to come along after these three genres were codified and move freely among them.”.....
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She received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 2004 and, from 1996 to 2005, hosted the National Public Radio program “Jazz Profiles.” She recorded two Grammy-winning celebrity-duet albums — “R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal)” in 2004 and “Turned to Blue” in 2006 — before gradually winding down her career.
Ms. Wilson used her celebrity to draw attention to social causes such as literacy and education among low-income black children. She also participated in civil rights marches, was a spokeswoman for the Urban League and used her stature in black communities to promote AIDS awareness, prenatal care and breast-cancer screenings.
She criticized rap and hip-hop performers — and the record companies that she said encouraged them — for denigrating women and romanticizing violence through their music.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE - Nancy Wilson
THE CHRISTMAS WALTZ - Nancy Wilson
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FACE IT GIRL IT'S OVER - Nancy Wilson
I really liked her music. If there was a song in the "standards" category , Nancy Wilson probably recorded it some time within the past 60 years. RIP
A great singer.
While in 'Nam on my first tour (65-67), my partner-in-crime and I had one of those "cheap" Akai reel-to-reels set up in our tent.
We had five 6 hour tapes, front-to-back. Tape 1 had all the Herb Albert and Burt Bacharach albums. Tape 2 had all the Nancy Wilson and Dionne Warwick. Tape 3 - the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Tape 4 - Johnny Cash and Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson. Don't think we ever got to tape 5.
Nancy and Dionne's tape got the most play and, after the first 8 months, our lives were constantly threatened - but, the soothing, earthy voices of those two caused us to cast caution to the wind.
So many reproductions of this song !
Says much about her contributions to the same.
My Fav. version was this :
So many times I have to salute the lives of 'the great ones' who can not dwell here any longer. Many of these people completed their "service" to humanity, and were archived for the ages for us to remember. So many 'photographs' too, so much to ache-over and enjoy, and now I release Nancy Wilson gladly and peacefully to eternity. "Ms. Nancy" I will adore from afar.