The Last Cinderella of Capitol's
golden age was Nancy Wilson. All of a sudden she appeared in 1959: an unknown
band singer from Ohio, twenty-two and gorgeous, who had come to New York only
months earlier and won herself a Capitol recording deal. With a voice of
vinegar and ice, a glamorous wardrobe, and a glowing smile, Wilson became
visible fast.
Capitol
issued the album in June 1964, the same month that "How Glad I Am,"
Wilson's biggest pop single, hit the charts. Down Beat went on to give Today,
Tomorrow, Forever three stars, calling it "quite mediocre" and
"rather antiseptic" - typical criticisms against Wilson from the jazz
press, who faulted her for not remaining a "pure" jazz artist’.
"People really wanted to pigeonhole you," she says. This to me
was not a jazz album by a long shot. Most of the things I've done are pop. You
can put jazz musicians behind me but that doesn't change what I'm singing. I
would have sung this the same way with eighteen pieces. Jazz purists did not
accept me as a jazz singer, so why should I say that's what I'm doing?"
Yet no vocalist of her generation has had a stronger impact on younger
female jazz singers.
[extracts from the CD cover]
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