W♥M (Archive)

R.I.P. Nancy Wilson and Anca Pop

Read More Nancy Wilson Growing up in Ohio, Nancy Wilson knew early she wanted to be a singer. After winning talent shows, working clubs, touring with a big band and studying briefly to become a teacher, she decided to make a move to New York City in 1959. … Anca Pop Ring Around Anca Pop Original Release Date: January 25, 2017 Release Date: January 25, 2017 Label: Roton Copyright: ℗© Roton Music Total Length: 2:58 …

American singer Nancy Wilson has died on December 13th. I know we’re late to mention the news, but her contribution to blues and jazz is so important that we had at least acknowledge the sad news of her passing.

Wilson’s career spanned over five decades, starting in the mid-1950s to her retirement in 2010. Her signature song was “(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am” and her reinterpretation of “Guess Who I Saw Today”.

We previously wrote about Wilson, noting, “Growing up in Ohio, Nancy Wilson knew early she wanted to be a singer. After winning talent shows, working clubs, touring with a big band and studying briefly to become a teacher, she decided to make a move to New York City in 1959. Cannonball Adderly was so impressed with the up-and-coming singer he helped launch Wilson’s career by sharing his manager, John Levy, and his label, Capitol Records. That’s all the help she would need. Her debut was so well received she released five albums by her within the first two and a half years. And for the next forty Wilson would go on to record 70 albums with the last, “Turn to Blue,” winning a Grammy in 2006 for best jazz vocal.”

Also in the news is the death of Romanian-Canadian singer-songwriter Anca Pop. She was involved in a traffic accident that sent her car into the Danube River. Her body was found on December 17; she was only 34.

Pop’s music style was a little Balkan and mainstream pop. She had a big following in Japan.

Below are more recent deaths - for the full death list: Musicians who died in 2018.

December (18)

[21 Dec 2018] Dipali Barthakur (Indian singer), 77

[20 Dec 2018] Adolfo Echeverría (Colombian composer), 86

[17 Dec 2018] Arun Bhaduri (Indian classical vocalist), 75, respiratory disease

[17 Dec 2018] Galt MacDermot (Canadian-American composer and pianist), 89

[17 Dec 2018] Anca Pop (Romanian-Canadian singer-songwriter), 34, traffic collision

[15 Dec 2018] Jerry Chesnut (American songwriter), 87

[15 Dec 2018] Arthur Maia (Brazilian composer and musician), 56, heart attack

[14 Dec 2018] Joe Osborn (American bass guitarist for The Wrecking Crew), 81

[13 Dec 2018] Nancy Wilson (Grammy winner American jazz singer), 81

[11 Dec 2018] Angelo Conti (Italian singer for Banda Bassotti), 62

[10 Dec 2018] J. R. Reitz (American radio host and disc jockey for WFHN), 66

[10 Dec 2018] Fred Wieland (Australian guitarist for The Strangers), 75, lung cancer

[09 Dec 2018] Yigal Bashan (Israeli singer and composer), 68, , heart attack

[07 Dec 2018] The Mascara Snake (American artist and musician for Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band), 70, traffic collision

[06 Dec 2018] Pete Shelley (English musician for Buzzcocks), 63, heart attack

[02 Dec 2018] Perry Robinson (American jazz musician), 80

[01 Dec 2018] Calvin Newborn (American jazz guitarist), 85

[01 Dec 2018] Jody Williams (American blues musician), 83, cancer

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JAZZ NOTE #12 – FRAME THE MOMENT

Nancy Wilson: Moon River

Growing up in Ohio, Nancy Wilson knew early she wanted to be a singer. After winning talent shows, working clubs, touring with a big band and studying briefly to become a teacher, she decided to make a move to New York City in 1959.

Cannonball Adderly was so impressed with the up-and-coming singer he helped launch Wilson’s career by sharing his manager, John Levy, and his label, Capitol Records.  That’s all the help she would need.  Her debut was so well received she released five albums by her within the first two and a half years.  And for the next forty Wilson would go on to record 70 albums with the last, “Turn to Blue,” winning a Grammy in 2006 for best jazz vocal.

Although Wilson has been described as a blues, jazz and/or cabaret singer, she has always preferred the title, song stylist.  She is definitely one of those artists that can take a standard and make it her own.  With the bright clarity of Ella Fitzgerald, the phrasing of Billie Holiday, the command of Frank Sinatra and the sensibility of her childhood idol, Nat King Cole, Wilson crafts a warm, sophisticated sound or as Time Magazine wrote in 1964, “She is all at once, both cool and sweet, both singer and storyteller.”

Like all the greats, Wilson can bring you in and make you feel at ease.  Take “Moon River.”  Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s original is wistful and longing, but Wilson’s interpretation is a breezy.  She doesn’t so much sing as soar, gliding over the subtle percussive beat as to never land on a single note.  No wonder Joe Williams once called her the Thrush from Columbus.

Dave