In Memoriam: Nancy Wilson

Jazz Singer Who Turned Songs Into Stories

By Jim Farber

Nancy Wilson, whose skilled and flexible approach to singing provided a key bridge between the sophisticated jazz-pop vocalists of the 1950s and the powerhouse pop-soul singers of the 1960s and ’70s, died Thursday at her home in Pioneertown, Calif. She was 81.

Ms. Wilson’s death, which came after a long illness, was confirmed by her manager, Devra Hall Levy.

In her long and celebrated career, Ms. Wilson performed American standards, jazz ballads, Broadway show tunes, R&B torch songs and middle-of-the-road pop pieces, all delivered with a heightened sense of a song’s narrative.

“I have a gift for telling stories, making them seem larger than life,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1993. “I love the vignette, the plays within the song.”

Some of Ms. Wilson’s best-known recordings told tales of heartbreak, with attitude. A forerunner of the modern female empowerment singer, with the brassy inflections and biting inflections to fuel it, Ms. Wilson could infuse even the saddest song with a sense of strength.

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Source: The New York Times 

Note: From The G-Man will be going dark today in honor of the five Marines that were killed, FDNY firefighter Faizal Coto and Ms. Wilson. 

In the midst of all the bickering, chaos, scandals and uncertainty in this country, Americans would be well-served to pause and reflect on the contributions and sacrifices of the aforementioned.....and how they truly made America great.   

"G-Man"