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Nancy Wilson Grammy Winning Jazz/ Soul Vocalist passes at 81


Nancy Wilson, an award-winning singer whose beguiling expressiveness in jazz, R&B;, gospel, soul and pop made her a crossover recording star for five decades and who also had a prolific career as an actress, activist, and commercial spokeswoman, died Dec. 13 at her home in Pioneertown, Calif. She was 81.
Wilson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, the oldest of six children, on 20 February 1937, and raised some 50 miles north in Columbus. Singing from the age of four and leading her church choir at ten, she was influenced as a young performer by Nat ‘King’ Cole, Billy Eckstine, Jimmy Scott, and Dinah Washington. “I was singing long before I ever took it seriously,” she told Blues & Soul in 1976. “I’ve always sung the way I do — it was a gift that I was born with, I guess. But it took me a long time to decide that I wanted it to be my livelihood.”
Her manager and publicist Devra Hall Levy confirmed the death but did not know the specific cause. My mom was a huge fan of Nancy Wilson so her vinyl albums were in constant rotation at our home. My music appreciation as a child evolved around her music Nancy soulful melodies backdropped moms housework and my school study sessions.
She resisted being identified with a single category, especially jazz, and referred to herself as a "song stylist."
"The music that I sing today was the pop music of the 1960s," she told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2010. "I just never considered myself a jazz singer. I do not do runs and - you know. I take a lyric and make it mine. I consider myself an interpreter of the lyric."
Wilson also had a busy career on television, film, and radio, her credits including "Hawaii Five-O," ''Police Story," the Robert Townshend spoof "Meteor Man" and years hosting NPR's "Jazz Profiles" series. Active in the civil rights movement, including the Selma march of 1965, she received an NAACP Image Award in 1998. Thank you, Nancy Wilson, for blessing my childhood with your beautiful vocals. I still listen to her velvety smooth lyrics from my mom vinyl collection who passed away in 2012. Your music wrote a special chapter in my life.



This post first appeared on X URBAN MUSIC MAG, please read the originial post: here

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Nancy Wilson Grammy Winning Jazz/ Soul Vocalist passes at 81

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