“A Lady Sings a Song – Amber Weekes Celebrates Nancy Wilson” is a Southern California vocalist’s homage to the international singing sensation. Weekes is set to perform her tribute to Wilson on June 6, at the Catalina Jazz Club on Sunset Boulevard.
One year after revered songstress, vocal teacher and community activist Barbara Morrison’s passing at age 72, her legacy is humming along in full swing. The City of Los Angeles has renamed the corner of 43rd Street and Degnan (where the Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center has stood for the past 14 years) “Barbara Morrison Square.” It was dedicated on the singer’s birthday last year, September 10, which also marked the date of the First Annual Barbara Morrison Jazz and Blues Festival.
This year, we said goodbye to amazing men and women who shaped the world with their love, talents and time.
As we bid farewell to an iconic voice for many generations, we remember what made Nancy Wilson nothing short of a Legend.
Influenced by Dinah Washington, Nat “King” Cole and other stars, Wilson covered everything from jazz standards to “Little Green Apples” and in the 1960s alone released eight albums that reached the top 20 on Billboard’s pop charts. Sometimes elegant and understated, or quick and conversational and a little naughty, she was best known for such songs as her breakthrough “Guess Who I Saw Today” and the 1964 hit ”(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” which drew upon Broadway, pop and jazz.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nancy Wilson, the Grammy-winning “song stylist” and torch singer whose polished pop-jazz vocals made her a platinum artist and top concert performer, has died. Wilson, who retired from touring in 2011, died after a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, a California desert community near Joshua Tree National Park, her manager and publicist Devra Hall Levy told The Associated Press late Thursday night. She was 81. Influenced by Dinah Washington, Nat “King” Cole and other stars, Wilson covered everything from jazz standards to “Little Green Apples” and in the 1960s alone released eight albums
Weekly Black history facts