G: I can understand that impulse. You’re in Toronto – do you have a concert there?
NW: I hosted a gala dinner for the International Association of Jazz Educators.
I did an interview today, I went to a panel that my manager was on as a jazz advocate, and I talked to my record company about the next record.
Tomorrow we have a big photo shoot, and then we have a luncheon, and in the evening the NEA presents the five new Jazz Masters; I’m one of the presenters.
The next day there’s a memorial service for Oscar Peterson.

G: What is your plan for the next record?
NW: I don’t have one yet. I’m still picking out songs and deciding which way to go. I know that I’m going to do “Here’s to Life,” and I’m looking for a lot of originals.

G: Because your songbook is huge, is it a challenge to find new material that is up to your standards?
NW: Oh yeah. I’ll be looking through the Billy Eckstine songbook, looking for something like [Larry Conrad and Willard Robison’s] “Cottage for Sale.” I’m still very much about the American songbook; I’ll be looking to see if I can find an obscure Irving Berlin or Cole Porter or [George] Gershwin song.

G: I’d imagine you have to be a very quick study when it comes to learning songs.
NW: I used to be. I can still sing something I recorded 40 years ago, but can’t remember something I did 3 years ago. [Laughs]

G: That might depend on the material.
NW: Also, I was working more, so I performed the songs more often.

G: They became part of your DNA. Has the way you feel about, or your approach towards, some of your signature songs changed over time?
NW: Actually, it all depends on what the introduction sounds like that night. Or if it was raining that day – an awful lot of things can effect how “Guess Who I Saw Today” works at night.

G: The Nancy Wilson Show has just been reissued, so I wanted to ask about any longstanding memorable engagements at hotels or other places.
NW: That was the most important engagement in my life, really. It was covered nationally in Time and Newsweek. The show had been broken in at the Venetian Room in the Fairmont [in San Francisco], and it had already been done in Las Vegas, too. There was very little to worry about other than “Let’s go do it.” The engineers did such a super job.

G: I can hear Jimmy Scott’s voice within what you do, but your versions of the songs you share are very distinct from his as well.
NW: Back in the day it was about the music, it was about the song, and you wanted to hear every good singer sing every good song. I heard Jimmy when I must have been about 10. He was singing “Everybody Needs Somebody” with the Lionel Hampton Band. I listened to everything else he did, before he started having problems with his label.
I couldn’t figure out why he’d dropped off. I always talked about him. Then Ruth Brown, Bonnie Raitt and I were able to put together a big party where he came back, at the Roosevelt Hotel [in New York].

G: There’s an anecdote in his biography [Faith in Time: The Life of Jimmy Scott by David Ritz; Da Capo} about you encountering him when he was working as an elevator operator.
NW: That was one of the most heartbreaking things in my life. I didn’t know what happened to him, I’m checking into the Sheraton in Cleveland, and he’s the bellman. It broke my heart.
Another thing that was really hard for me was working in Las Vegas opening the big room at the Flamingo, and finding out Dorothy Dandridge was [performing] in the lounge.
But there were a few of us who just kept talking about Jimmy Scott. People would say I sound like him. By osmosis I am Nancy Wilson, but I listen to male influences.

G: And he listens to female influences – that’s what’s fascinating. I love your interpretation of “The Folks Who Live on the Hill” on [the DVD] Nancy Wilson at Carnegie Hall.
NW: Carl Anderson [who duets with Wilson during the concert]! I’m very proud – I think I’ve been able to put certain songs down in a way no one can surpass. They may sing better, but it’s about interpretation, also.

G: These days, who do you like to listen to when you’re alone?
NW: Well, I don’t know if I should tell you this, but if I’m listening to my iPod it’s usually a book. I also have a lot of Yolanda Adams and Daryl Coley and the Winans and Fred Hammond. I tell one of my grandsons, “I put T-Pain on here for you, this is for me [laughs].” But he’s cool with it – he’s into Take 6.
I have two seven-year-old grandsons and one 4-year-old – I don’t mind them listening to T-Pain, but I’m not like their 32-year-old father, who will just let them download anything. No, no, no.
I’m sitting here with a laptop on my lap right now. I’ve been busy researching renal carcinoma [for my husband] and different ways of handling it. It’s more than a notion.
I just got an iMac for Christmas. That new iMac is the bomb!
I was waiting for the holidays to be over so I could play Nintendo Wii, because every kid who went into my house left with a sore arm. They love it.

G: I write about movies, and so I wanted to ask about your experience making a musical cameo in Don Siegel’s The Killers.
NW: Oh, Ronald Reagan’s last picture [he plays the villain]. That was very difficult because John [F.] Kennedy was killed the day I recorded it and I still had to go in the studio. “Too Little Time” was the name of the song. Trying to match the facial expressions with the recording was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
But I love Angie [Dickinson]. She’s one of my favorite people. She’s a fun lady.

G: She has said she would never write an autobiography. I’m guessing you wouldn’t either.
NW: No.
I’ve lived my life, people know my children. I’m too private a person for that.

G: One interview with you that I really liked was with Ed Gordon five or so years back on BET. An overview profile like that is probably better.
NW: It is better. You worry you’ll leave something out or forget something. My children have lived their lives with me, they know me, and nothing else out there is anyone’s business. I’m hating what I see the press doing to artists today, it’s so disturbing. There’s no limit. I remember Confidential magazine – that’s a walk in the park compared to today. I have a lot of blame to pass around there. I just feel we should allow people to have lives. I can walk out on the street, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to live my life publicly.
That’s the hardest part of the business, and I don’t think people realize it.

G: This interview won’t be too long or overly demanding.
NW: I don’t have any stipulations. I know how to say no if I want to [laughs].

G: A duo I’m glad you said yes to was [Kenny] Gamble and [Leon] Huff. Now that you’ve recently gotten a box set, I hope people rediscover some of those ‘70s albums, such as Now I’m a Woman [1970, with Gamble and Huff] and also I Know I Love Him (1973). On Now I’m a Woman, you do a great version of “Joe.”
NW: Isn’t “Joe” great? We were able to do some good things that didn’t sound like the Stylistics or the Philadelphia International sound – it’s definitely me.

G: There’s something about the luxury of that sound that works well with your phrasing and timing. What designers are you enjoying right now?
NW: Kevan Hall and Angela Dean; the last two gowns [I’ve gotten] that were vital and important were made by Levita, who used to make all my gowns in the early ‘60s. With the 70th birthday of Carnegie Hall, and the 85th anniversary of the Hollywood Bowl, she said she wanted to design again.
I’m not into whatever’s happening. I’m very tailored, very classic.

G: What are your plans for the evening?
NW: I’m finished for the evening. I have an early call in the morning. I’ve done three things today and that’s enough.

G: How about plans in San Francisco?
NW: I’ve talked to Belva Davis at least three times in the last few weeks. She’s my buddy in San Francisco, so I’m looking forward to seeing her.

AN EVENING WITH MISS NANCY WILSON
Sat/19, 8 p.m., $45.75-125.75
Herbst Theatre
War Memorial Veterans Bldg.
401 Van Ness, SF
(415) 392-4400
www.missnancywilson.com