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Nancy Wilson
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Nancy Wilson has been a world-renowned jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop singer for more than 35 years. Fashionable and poised, with a voice that both soothes and seduces an audience, Wilson prefers to call herself a "song stylist" who ranges freely through several musical idioms. Rather than reading music, Wilson learns each song by listening to the melody, enabling her to decide which songs best complement her rich, supple voice. An Essence magazine contributor noted that the entertainer has always defied easy labels or glib categorizations: "She is a jazz singer. A balladeer. She does cabaret, sophisticated pop, rhythm and blues.
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This gala, featuring Nancy Wilson, is the organization's first benefit since 1996. "Jessye Norman Sings For The Healing of AIDS" was presented at the Riverside Church in New York and included among its special guests Whoopi Goldberg, Elton John and Maya Angelou. The television airing of Jessye Norman Sings For The Healing of AIDS was an Emmy-award winning PBS broadcast special.
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With all that Nancy Wilson has given to the world of music, she is giving one more gift, R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal). R.S.V.P. (Rare Songs, Very Personal) started with the concept of Miss Wilson picking out songs that were near and dear to her, yet were compositions she had never recorded in her 50 years in the music business and 67 recordings. The exhaustive process of selecting these rare and highly personal songs took Miss Wilson on a powerful musical journey. Soon it became evident that each song would require special treatment.
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A highly successful and respected jazz and soul singer, Nancy Wilson bridges the gap between the classic pop vocal era of Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and the belting R&B divas of today. Though Nancy Wilson has always cited the emotionally naked, androgynous vocal style of Jimmy Scott as her primary influence, her voice carries definite echoes of Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. Yet Wilson ... has always had a strong feeling for post-Sam Cooke soul and the tartness of her delivery carries more than an echo of the sometimes-icy Lena Horne. Young and heart-stoppingly beautiful, Wilson was discovered singing in a N.Y.C. jazz club in the late 1950s by Cannonball Adderley, who told his management at Capitol Records that they needed to scoop her up before another label did. Wilson was immediately signed and started recording for Capitol, the premier vocal label of the 1950s and '60s.
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Has Nancy Wilson ever made a public move in her 40-plus-year career that wasn't tasteful? Aside from a couple of small-print notices, purchasers would never know that Wilson intends to donate her royalties from her first full- length Christmas disc to the Pittsburgh-based Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, an arts and education center for lower-income residents. Christmas finds Wilson moving between quietly felt moods with astute shifts in arrangement size; her trio, the Dizzy Gillespie alumni orchestra, and a chamber group are among the varied settings. As a choice for a houseful of family on Christmas Eve, this could hardly be better. A seemingly unpromising match between Wilson and the supremely fussy quartet New York Voices on "Carol of the Bells" ends up as one of the album's most sustained performances. --Rickey Wright
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The oldest of six children of Olden and Lillian Wilson, Nancy Wilson was born and raised in Chillicothe, Ohio. Hers was a close-knit family with two hard-working parents. Her mother labored long hours as a domestic and her father worked in an iron foundry. Often Nancy and her brothers and sisters would spend the summers at their grandmother's home on Whiskey Run Road just outside Columbus, Ohio. There the youngster would delight her extended family with her singing.
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Nancy Wilson