The Very Best of Nancy Wilson

[tranemonk]

Apparently this 3cd compilation came out in 2007..

http://www.amazon.com/Very-Best-Nancy-Wils...2558&sr=1-1

It seems like Cuscuna (et. al.,) decided the best way to deal with Nancy Wilson's Capitol recordings was to repackage them as compilations. Around 2005-6 several others came out including the 2cd. "Great American Songbook," and the single CDs "Guess Who I Saw Today - Sings Songs of Lost Love" and "Save Your Love for Me: Nancy Wilson Sings the Great Blues Ballads." My guess is that the powers that be... :unsure: decided that it made more sense to do this than to do a Mosaic Select or full set on her.

My questions are these..

Is there any duplication between those Cd's (mentioned above) and the 3cd box set??? I've got the American Songbook and Guess Who I Saw Today (along with Hollywood My Way and Broadway My Way).. but I don't want to buy the same thing twice..... :angry:

My other question is this... if I do get the "Very Best" 3cd set? Along with the others... How much of her Capitol material does this cover??? :huh:

I think she's a wonderfully underestimated singer... and looks like these are good bets to get...

Edited January 16, 2009 by tranemonk

[GA Russell]

I heard her recording of the song Guess Who I Saw Today on the radio the day before yesterday, and I was surprised by how much she reminded me of Dinah Washington. I hadn't heard that in her voice before.

[Chuck Nessa]

It isn't a 45?

[JSngry]

You can hear Dinah in her, sure, but who you car really hear is Jimmy Scott.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

You can hear Dinah in her, sure, but who you car really hear is Jimmy Scott.

Damn! I knew there had to be a reason I wasn't really WITH Nancy!

MG

[JSngry]

Well, I'm not really "with" her all that much either, there's usually a "ground floor" of emotion missing in her singing for me, but I very much do dig Jimmy Scott.

[Teasing the Korean]

She has an annoying tendency to simplify complex melodic phrases, but some of her Capitol albums are good.

[JSngry]

She quite often had top-shelf arrangers on her dates. That goes a long way for me. If the arrangements are cool enough, I can tolerate some lightweight-ish or otherwise less than fully satisfying singing as part of the total package.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I bought her 45 of "How glad I am" when it was out and liked it a lot - but not enough to keep it through the vicissitudes of life over the past 44 years. But, amazingly, I never listened to her again until I picked up a twofer of "Like in love" and "Something wonderful" a couple of years back. They were all right, but a bit mannered - not for real. So I got her album with Cannonball a couple of weeks ago, to see if working with a real jazzman made a difference. Well, it's a much better album, but because of the band. Nancy just seems like she's trying to be a clever jazz singer. Very good at it, but not what I would expect from someone who came up with Rusty Bryant.

MG

[JSngry]

Yeah, her side w/Cannonball is fine, pretty much a classic, if only for "cultural soundtrack" reasons (you could, I guess, say the same thing about "Guess Who I Saw Today"), but other than that, nothing's really stuck for me over the years. Fine singer, but....

Although, I must say that I'd not mind hearing "It's Over" at least one more time before I die. That was a Top-40 hit, & I remember it as being the type of record Vicki Carr would've been making it I were in charge of making Vicki Carr & Vicki Carr records.

[Teasing the Korean]

She quite often had top-shelf arrangers on her dates. That goes a long way for me. If the arrangements are cool enough, I can tolerate some lightweight-ish or otherwise less than fully satisfying singing as part of the total package.

Agreed, song selection and arrangements are a big part of the draw with vocal jazz albums. Or vocal "jazz" albums.