Nancy Wilson's "Broadway My Way"

[Larry Kart]

Just picked an LP copy and probably am enjoying it more than I should, given that I'm not normally a big Nancy Wilson fan. In any case, impressed not only by much of Wilson's work here, but also by Jimmy Jones' arrangments, and by the work of the band -- e.g. the lovely two-guitar passages by John Gray and Al Hendrickson on what would become Wilson's signature tune, "You Can Have Him" -- I began to wonder who the tasty bass player was. No bassist is named in the only online personnel roster I could find:

John Michael Gray, Al Hendrickson (guitar); Paul Horn (reeds); Bill Perkins, Justin Gordon, Bill Hood, Buddy Collette (saxophone); Don Fagerquist (trumpet); Lew McCreary (trombone); Lou Levy (piano); Shelly Manne, Kenny Dennis (drums); Emil Richards (percussion).

Anyone know the answer?

P.S. Wilson's phrasing on "I Believe In You" is very hip.

[J.A.W.]

AMG lists two bass players, Joe Comfort and Al McKibbon.

[Larry Kart]

AMG lists two bass players, Joe Comfort and Al McKibbon.

Many thanks.

[JSngry]

Joe Comfort is the Unsung Uber-Hero of Capitol Records.

[J.A.W.]

AMG lists two bass players, Joe Comfort and Al McKibbon.

Many thanks.

They've probably taken the info from the CD issue, which, by the way, has five extra tracks.

CD tracklisting:

A Lot of Livin' to Do

You Can Have Him

Tonight

Make Someone Happy

I Believe in You

As Long as He Needs Me

Getting to Know You

My Ship

The Sweetest Sounds

Joey, Joey, Joey

Loads of Love

I'll Know

Hello, Young Lovers

If Ever I Would Leave You

I'm All Smiles

Come Back to Me

Don't Rain on My Parade

[Mark Stryker]

No need to back into enjoying Nancy Wilson -- though I think I know what you mean. But early Nancy -- whew! So swinging, carefree, ebullient and the ballads really purred. Bell-like tone and great diction. Taste in singers is of course probably more personal than with any other set of musicians, but I've often thought she was The One Who Got Away. Her own early Capitols ("Like in Love," "Yesterday's Love Songs ... Today's Blues" the side with Cannonball) were heading toward a really deep synthesis, like the potential to take Dinah Washington to a new level of jazz elasticity. And then, well, she got Vegasized and crossed the line where everything turned overly mannered and too slick. Ugh. I can still hear the promise in later work but I'm almost always disappointed. It's like the sense of taste that kept her on the side of the angels in the early days eventually atrophied.

The thrill is gone.

Don't have "Broadway My Way." I think I'm heading to the used record stores today -- I'll look for it.

Coda A few months ago I just happened to listen to an early Nancy Wilson record back-to-back with some some early Aretha Franklin on Columbia and the similarities were really striking. You could really hear many of the same sources in both -- Dinah, Lavern Baker, Ruth Brown.

Edited December 18, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

like the potential to take Dinah Washington to a new level of jazz elasticity.

FWIW, Nancy claims that her biggest influence, bar none, was Little Jimmy Scott.

[Mark Stryker]

like the potential to take Dinah Washington to a new level of jazz elasticity.

FWIW, Nancy claims that her biggest influence, bar none, was Little Jimmy Scott.

I'm aware of this -- but I was thinking more of the the way she phrases on the swingers, though I suppose Scott's floating quality on the ballads is perhaps part of the same flexible approach to time. Still, there's a lot of Dinah in early Nancy. Maybe a better was of saying it that she synthesized Scott and Washington and was on her way to taking that to a new level of jazz elasticity.

Speaking of her influences, she told the The Commercial Appeal in Memphis this past summer: "The sound was a lot like Little Jimmy Scott, the humor had a great deal to do with Dinah Washington, the look had a great deal to do with Lena Horne." It would be interesting to try and parse some of this with her in greater musical detail.

Edited December 18, 2010 by Mark Stryker

[Larry Kart]

BTW, Wilson's signature song was not, as I wrote, "You Can Have Him" but "Guess Who I Saw Today" -- similar though they are.

Multi-part simpatico interview with Wilson by Marc Myers:

http://www.jazzwax.com/2010/04/interview-nancy-wilson-part-1.html

[Larry Kart]

FWIW, I think of Wilson as kind of the female vocal equivalent of the Jazztet. No, she's not the artist that Farmer, Golson, and Fuller were, but the gliding, finger-popping zone of things like "Killer Joe."

[JSngry]

This is an above-average 60s Wilson date, I think.

I'm frequently less than fully-engaged in her work, especially from the 60s, because of the "breeziness" of the records. Short tracks, nothing really has time to set in. But on this one, things do set in, and it's all the much better because they do.