The first time I met Nancy King, I was on the faculty of the Frank DeMiero Jazz Camp at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Washington. She sang an intimate duo concert with her long-time musical partner Steve Christofferson for the campers and staff. The night was magical. I immediately started building my collection of Nancy King recordings.

The second time I met Nancy King, I was an adjudicator at the Salem High School vocal jazz festival in 2000 (perhaps). I clearly remember her holding court in the hallway with a Dum Dum lollipop in her mouth. She turned around to greet me with an exuberant, “Kiss me liver lips. Nothing makes me sick!” I don’t know what surprised me more, what she said or the fact that she remembered me. Her concert that night with Steve was another lesson in inspired musical conversation.

I got to know Nancy better during the 2002 Port Townsend Jazz Workshop. I was assigned to be the house bass player in Nancy’s vocal room. It was a luxurious treat to watch her perform, hear her stories, and interact with her the entire week. I think I learned more than the students. 

Along with Sheila Jordan, she is one of our few living legends. She is still out there, bringing beauty and joy to us all. She exudes spontaneity, heart, and a deep understanding of music that can’t be described in any kind of theoretical or technical terms.  The lessons you learn come from sitting at the feet of the master. As a student, you can’t come in with a laundry list of things you want to learn in the way you want to learn them. If you watch and listen closely enough, you get more than you ever expected.

Nancy King turns 80 today.

Honoring Nancy’s musical contributions, I hope I’m just singing to the choir and you are all fans of hers. If that’s the case, let me know your favorite recordings you have of hers. If she is “new to you”, you are in for a wonderful treat.

My original intent was to make a Spotify Playlist with my personal “top ten” spanning her career. Unfortunately, most of her recordings can’t be found there. I made a playlist for you with some wonderful selections. I’ve also made links where you can support her by purchasing the music. (I get no kickbacks from the purchases you make. I share the links because I want to support the music.)

 Nancy, you are loved and appreciated. I hope your 80^th birthday brings you joy. You’ve certainly brought it to me.

Two-fers:

Nancy loves her some “two-fers”. You get two songs for the price of one. The mash ups have been a consistent part of Nancy’s career. On her first recording, she comes out of the gate with “Scrapple from the Honeysuckle”. You can also hear other mash ups as follows:

“Scrapple From the Honeysuckle”
First Date (Inner City Records, 1976)
Steve Wolf / Jack Sheldon / Frank Strazzeri / Ray Brown / Nick Ceroli
I have an mp3 of this in my personal collection, but I haven’t seen it floating around on the internet anywhere. If you find it, buy it!

“Dee Dah / This Can’t Be Love”
Dream Lands (Vol 2)
Stellar Sound Productions

Clifford Brown’s “Dee Dah” is used here as the intro and ending. It is such a simple way to spice up an arrangement without needing to reharmonize the whole thing.

Glen Moore:

One of the great bass / voice duos in our jazz family are Nancy King and Glen Moore. The colors and textures that Glen pulls out of the bass combined with Nancy’s flights of fancy are wonders to behold.

Two More:

“Just One of Those Things”
Porter Plays Porter with Nancy King (*Grammy nominated)
Randy Porter / John Witala / Todd Strait
(Apple Music Link)

Nancy Now:

These two videos come from a performance Nancy gave in October 2019 with the Steve Christofferson Trio (Tom Wakeling (b) / Charlie Doggett (d)).

You Are

I love the lyric for this standard tune that you already know. “You can’t create yourself. That job’s been done. You can compose yourself. It’s kind of fun.”

Spotify Playlist Recommendations: