A singer who moved from church choirs to Billy Eckstine's band and decades of albums.
For a quick sense of her, try 'Fly Me To The Moon' or 'When October Goes.' They're both standards, but she makes them feel lived-in.
She was one of the first Black women to reach a wide audience in both pop and jazz, which wasn't common at the time. You can hear that crossover ease in songs like 'Fly Me To The Moon' and 'When October Goes,' where she handled standards without getting stuck in one genre. Her work with Cannonball Adderley in the early '60s showed she could hold her own with jazz heavyweights, too.
Billy Eckstine heard her in Ohio and brought her into his ensemble, leading to her first album 'Like in Love' in 1959. She recorded with Cannonball Adderley on 'Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley' in 1961, then put out solo albums like 'How Glad I Am' and 'But Beautiful' through the '60s and '70s.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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