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JazzWords > Nancy King, Steve Christofferson - Newer Vintage Still Recommended
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I first wrote a review of Nancy King in 1998. I still feel the same about Nancy, but want her fans to know that Nancy has recorded a
few times since her days with Justice Records in the early '90s. Most notably, she has made two recent CDs with Steve Christofferson (from Canadian
Broadcasting Company recordings released on Stellar Sound Productions - click here to request purchase info) and another with
Glen Moore called "King on the Road", a live session on the Oregon coast, available from Cardas Records. The third CD with Steve
that I'm aware of (actually recorded in 1996) with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra including strings is, sadly, very hard to find, but worth having. I can find one if you are
really interested.
I had the good fortune to hear Nancy and Steve in Eugene, Oregon, early in 2002 and enjoyed them every bit as much as on CD. Steve is an interesting, engaging soloist and
great accompanist. We started up an e-mail acquaintance last year, and he has graciously sent me new releases and filled in my understanding of what he and Nancy do when they are
not making their annual (sort of) recordings. One of the more difficult things to do is accompany someone and provide meaningful filigree without becoming redundant or overbearing.
Steve is skilled at playing the right things at the right times, and he and Nancy clearly could finish each other's music sentences.
Nancy is a rare vocalist - both entrancing and understated. She doesn't merely sing, but shapes songs to her liking. While treating songs with respect, care
and appreciation for melody, she's not afraid to get inside the tune to personalize a song. An artist who knows what works, and does it very well, Nancy has little pretense
in her delivery or her persona. If you know Nancy on CD, you'd certainly appreciate the live set I attended. She was very relaxed and perfectly in charge of her material, and
I gained an appreciation for how good she is. The wonderful voice I'd heard on disc these many years was right there, 20 feet in front of me, reworking songs and lyrics in surprising,
unexpected and delightful ways. That has not always been my experience with my favorites...
Dream Lands, STEL 108, the CBC sessions recorded in 1999 (part II is forthcoming soon), is a representative example of what Nancy and Steve do so well. They interpret standards -
including Picnic/Moonglow, You Say You Care, A Lovely Way to Spend An Evening/Like Someone in Love and Lazy Afternoon - with new phrasing, refreshing zigzags of time
and song interpolation, and with just enough surprises to please us as they turn familiar melodies or phrases inside out - just to see what it sounds
like. Even the songs I didn't recognize are noteworthy now, as Nancy and Steve have spun their "alchemists magic" and turned unknown material (at least to me) into precious strains
of vocal and instrumental gold.
Mark Murphy, a long-time contemporary of Nancy's who wrote the liner notes, says Nancy is "one of the world's greatest jazz singers now living...especially when she wings with geniusboy
Steve Christofferson...". Words like those from one of the leading jazz vocalists of anytime are another reason to open your ears to Nancy and Steve, and this CD. Mark is especially
fond of When the Wind was Green, Talk to Me and You Say You Care but he says he'll "leave the selection of these jewels to YOU!"
The review of the new CBC CD will have to wait until Steve sends it. Until then, read some older, but still relevant reflections, on Nancy from 1998...
The Nancy King & Glen Moore CD "Impending Bloom" was released in 1991, but I just listened to it
this year (1998). I have heard other CDs by these two, and liked them enough to buy them. This
one was a gift from Justice Records. Check out the title track (fun for us Texans), "Cherokee" and
"Secret Love."
What strikes me is that Nancy King has the same great qualities in phrasing and the same angular
approach to improvisation that she had twenty years ago. She made a record (pre-CDs for those of
you in Generation X) in 1976 called "First Date" for Inner City with a long-forgotten tenor player
named Steve Wolfe. The record was good, but the interplay between Nancy and the musicians (especially
Jack Sheldon, who sang a duet with Nancy on the Gershwin tune "Mine") was the highlight of the record. She
had those same qualities in 1991, and, although I have not heard her on a recording since 1993, I'll bet
she still does.
©1998 Dave Leonnig
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