Nancy Wilson with Cannonball Adderley by Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley

I'm cheating here - I don't have this cd and I can't find the lp either but I've listened to it till the vinyl was peeling off, so I think I can go ahead and recommend this very classic album. Nancy Wilson is so soulful and the songs are all fabulous. My favourite is "Sleeping Bee" with its playful lyrics written by Truman Capote. The album alternates between vocal tunes and instrumentals, so that you keep feeling like there should be more. The thing about Nancy is that her sense of dynamic range is impeccable. I saw her live once and when she ended a song on a tiny, unheard whisper I thought I would scream from the suspense.

Something happened to her career early on and she generated a profusion of pop albums - never listened to those. She had a successful t.v. career too. Let's face it - she's beautiful and talented and can do it all. And then there was an album of material with Barry Manilow, which frightens me to consider. So I have to confess that I haven't followed Nancy through all her incarnations, or listened to anything much besides this classic jazz album. It remains contemporary and fresh after all these years, which is exactly what makes her so great. Sweeping drama with "The Masquerade is Over", the charming "Sleepin' Bee" I mentioned before, "Save Your Love For Me" which is very bluesy and sexy, really the kind of torch song you'd love to hear blaring through a city street on a steamy, rainy night. Well, you get the general idea.

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