Yesterday, December 13th, beloved prolific jazz-pop vocalist Nancy Wilson died at age 81 in her Pioneertown, CA home following a prolonged illness, according to the artist's management company. Celebrated for her commanding versatile vocal style Nancy Wilson enjoyed a rich five decade long career, recording dozens of albums, performing jazz ballads, American standards, Broadway show tunes, and easy listening vocals as well as such other genres as disco. In addition to her music career, the African American artist was also a noted civil rights activist during her lifetime. Back in 1965 she was among those to march on Selma, Alabama. As Wilson repeatedly stated over the years, one of her lifelong missions was to continually break down prevalent racial stereotypes. This she accomplished via such things as her appearances on The Carol Burnett Show.

While her music is generally found filed under “jazz” or “soul” or "pop" in interviews Wilson insisted on not been associated with any one modern musical genre, rather describing herself as a “song stylist” who tells stories in an intimate engaging fashion. That description is certainly true of some of her best known songs that tackled topics of failed relationships and heartache in an open honest and empowered manner, now seen as ahead of its time. In an artist tribute the NYT described Wilson as a, “forerunner of the modern female empowerment singer, with the brassy inflections and biting inflections to fuel it.” This apt description applies to her best known songs including such definitive Nancy Wilson hit singles as “Face It Girl, It’s Over” from 1968 and “Guess Who I Saw Today” from 1960.