Nancy Harrow - Wild Women Don't Have the Blues / You Never Know (2014)

On Wild Women Dont Have the Blues, her debut album on Candid Records, Nancy Harrow showed she was a jazz singer to the manner born, with a straightforward, uncluttered approach and a sweet, unsentimental voice that recalls Mildred Bailey. To that add an easy swing and a faultless sense of dynamics, all of which earned her critic Nat Hentoffs accolade; she is without qualifications a jazz singer all the way.

An all-star band assembled by Buck Clayton, who also did the impressively elegant arrangements, included Claytons eloquent trumpet, Dickie Wellss provocative trombone and fine work by pianist Dick Wellstood in a grooving rhythm section of New Yorks finest.

On her second album You Never Know, recorded for Atlantic, she got anotherthis time unwrittenaccolade in the form of John Lewis, who seldom, if ever, chose to record with singers. The MJQs pianist arranged much of the material, and his economical, delicately nuanced writing and playing produced performances that balance complexity with clarity. His austere settings offer the perfect context for Harrows imaginative vocals, which exhibit the kind of restraint rare for a stylist with such abundant talent. The consistently on-message soloists are Phil Woods, alto saxophone and clarinet, Jim Hall, guitar, and Lewis.