Jazz legend Nancy Wilson has died
Photo of Nancy Wilson by John Mathew Smith, www.celebrity-photos.com.
Jazz legend and longtime Pioneertown resident, Nancy Wilson, has died at her Pipes Canyon home at the age of 81. Wilson died yesterday on December 13, after a long illness.
Wilson, who was born February 20, 1937, was a powerhouse of a singer, whose career ran from the mid-1950s until her official retirement less than a decade ago. During her career she recorded more than 70 albums and took home three Grammy Awards for her work, while receiving numerous other honors. She sang jazz, blues, R&B, pop, and soul, and was known as a complete entertainer and song stylist.
Influenced at an early age by recordings of Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, Dinah Washington, Ruth Brown, LaVerne Baker, and Little Esther, Wilson began by singing in church choirs and performing in her grandmother's home during summer visits. By the age of four, she said she knew she would become a singer.
Wilson won a talent contest sponsored by a local television station at age 15, which led to her first TV performance on a show she ended up hosting. She worked nightclubs in Columbus, Ohio, from the age of 15 through her high school graduation at age 17. She joined Rusty Bryant's Carolyn Club Big Band in 19556, and made her first recording with the band.
In 1959, WIlson relocated to New York City, after Julian "Cannonball" Adderley suggested her career would benefit from the move. Within four weeks of her arrival, she began performing at The Blue Morocco, first to fill in for Irene Reid, then booked on a permanent basis, singing four nights a week. Adderley's manager, John Levy, sent her demos to Capitol Records, which signed her in 1960. Her debut single, "Guess Who I Saw Today," was a hit and Wilson's career was established.
Wilson recorded with Cannonball Adderley on a collaborative album in 1982, with "Save Your Love For Me," putting her in the national spotlight. In 1963, "Tell Me the Truth" became her most significant hit to date, leading to a performance at the Coconut Grove in 1964, which gained her national critical praise. Between 1964 and 1965, four of Wilson's albums hit the Top 10 on Billboard's Top LPs charts.
Wilson's career continued to evolve with her getting her own series on NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show, which won an Emmy. Her TV career continued with her making guest appearances, singing and acting, on shows from I Spy, to Hawaii Five-O, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show, The Danny Kaye Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Kraft Music Hall, The Cosby Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Flip Wilson Show, and even Moesha, and The Parkers, among many others.
She gained a following in Japan while recording five albums for Japanese labels in the 1980s. American labels discouraged her practice of recording live, but the Japanese gave her the freedom to record in whatever manner she preferred. She won the annual Tokyo Song Festivals while working in Japan.
Wilson also continued to record and perform in the United States, with greats like Hank Jones, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Ramsey Lewis, and Carl Anderson. TV specials continued, with Forever Ella on A&E, A Nancy Wilson Christmas (the proceeds went to support a youth education program, MCG Jazz), and went on to host NPR's award-winning Jazz Profiles.
She recorded with MCG Jazz, and their second and third albums both won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2005 and 2007. By then she had already received the Whitney Young Jr. Award from the Urban League, was named best jazz vocalist by the Playboy Reader Poll, was named Global Entertainer of the Year by the World Conference of Mayors, received an award from the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as well as the NAACP Image Award/Hall of Fame Award, and was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame. She also received the Trumpet Award for Outstanding Achievement, an honorary degree from Berklee College of Music, received the National Endowment for the Arts NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships Award, got her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, co-founded the Nancy Wilson Foundation which works with inner-city children, and was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King JR. National HIstoric Site.
"This award means more to me than anything else I have ever received," Wilson said in an interview.
On September 10, 2011, Wilson performed on a public stage for the last time, back in her home state of Ohio.
Wilson had been living in Pioneertown with her husband, Reverend Wiley Burton. She had been hospitalized in 2006, and 2008. In 2008 Burton died from renal cancer.