DAY 10 OF YOU CHOOSE THE ARTIST TRIBUTE TO BLACK MUSIC MONTH! COMES FROM MS.DEBORAH SPOTTSVILLE ..HER CHOICE IS MRS. NANCY WILSON...FOR EVERYONE ELSE KEEP WATCHING THIS MONTH TO SEE IF YOUR CHOICE COMES UP IF YOU POSTED ON MY PAGE!...DEBORAH THIS IS YOUR CHOICE FOR BMM....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] On February 20, 1937, Wilson was the first of six children born to Olden Wilson, an iron foundry worker, and Lillian Ryan, a domestic worker in Chillicothe, Ohio.[3][4] Wilsons father would buy records to listen to at home. At an early age Wilson heard recordings from Billy Eckstine, Nat Cole, and Jimmy Scott with Lionel Hamptons Big Band. Wilson 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 grandmothers 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 Ohios Central State College (now Central State University) before dropping out and following her original ambitions. She auditioned and won a spot with Rusty Bryants Carolyn Club Big Band in 1956. She toured with them throughout Canada and the Midwest in 1956 to 1958.[7] While in this group, Wilson made her first recording under Dots Records.[4] Career When Wilson 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 Cannonball’s 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 of Guess Who I Saw Today, Sometimes I’m Happy, and two other songs to Capitol. Capitol Records signed her in 1960. Wilson’s 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, producing the album Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, which propelled her to national prominence, and Wilson would later appear on Adderleys live album In Person (1968). Between March 1964 and June 1965, four of Wilsons albums hit the Top 10 on Billboards 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.[8] TIME said of her, She is, all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller.[9] In 1964 Wilson released what became her most successful hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with (You Dont 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, Its Over was the only remaining non-Christmas song to crack the Top 40 for Wilson (#29, in 1968). After making numerous television guest appearances, Wilson eventually got her own series on NBC, The Nancy Wilson Show (1967–1968), which won an Emmy.[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.[10]), 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.[8][11] 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 Townsends 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 1977 she recorded the theme song for the The Last Dinosaur, a made for TV movie which opened in theaters in Japan. 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, Wilson 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,[12] nonprofit, minority-directed, arts and learning organization located in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1995, 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 2001s A Nancy Wilson Christmas went to support the work of MCG Jazz.[13] Wilson was the host on NPRs Jazz Profiles,[14] 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.[15] Wilsons 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. Awards and honors In 1964, Wilson 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.[16] 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. 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.[16] Wilson received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990, at 6541 Hollywood Blvd.[17] 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.[16] 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.[18] In 2005 she received the NAACP Image Awards for Best Recording Jazz Artist. She received the 2005 UNCF Trumpet Award celebrating African-American achievement, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAACP in Chicago, and Oprah Winfreys Legends Award.[19] In September 2005, Wilson 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. Wilson said, This award means more to me than anything else I have ever received.[20] Times, August 20, 2006: Its 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 Dont Remember Ever Growing Up. Shorter breathed these days, she can still summon a warm, rich sound and vividly tell a songs story. With a big band behind her in Taking a Chance on Love, she also shows theres plenty of fire in her autumnal mood.[21] At the Hollywood Bowl, August 29, 2007, Wilson celebrated her 70th birthday with an all-star event hosted by Arsenio Hall Hall. Ramsey Lewis and his trio performed To Know Her Is To Love Her
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 09:34:50 +0000
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