Interview: Nancy Harrow

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Vocalist Nancy Harrow may not be a household name, but in the early 1960s and again starting in the late '70s, she recorded with some of the best jazz musicians in the business. The list included Dick Katz, Jim Hall, John Lewis, Phil Woods, Connie Kay, Gary McFarland, Frank Wess, Bob Brookmeyer, Roland Hanna and Clark Terry. Modeling her vocal style on her favorite singer, Billie Holiday, Nancy specialized in a crying blues sound. In all, Nancy has recorded 16 albums.

On May 19, previews will start for For the Last Time: A New Jazz Musical at New York's Clurman Theatre (410 W. 42nd St.), with music and lyrics by Nancy Harrow and book by Will Pomerantz and Nancy Harrow. It's being directed by Will with arrangements by Dennis Mackrel, conductor of the Count Basie Orchestra. The musical opens May 28. For more information, go here. To take advantage of a special JazzWax discount, reducing your ticket price to $39, see the note at the end of this post.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Nancy a bunch of questions. Here's what she said in reply:

"I was born and raised in New York City. I never lived anywhere else until I left for Bennington College in Vermont, where I had planned to become a dancer but wound up majoring in literature. After graduation, I took a job at book publisher William Morrow. While in college, I had heard Billie Holiday’s recordings and was blown away. After college, I learned all her songs and listened to a lot of other singers and horn players. I made some demos and began haunting jazz clubs. Eventually I became friendly with a group of jazz musicians who let me sit in wherever they were playing. 

"In 1960, jazz writer and critic Nat Hentoff heard me singing at New York’s Five Spot and said he wanted to record me for Candid, which had just launched and had made him the label’s A&R director. That’s how my first album—Wild Women Don't Have the Blues—was recorded in November 1960. Nat brought in a bunch of former Basie alumni. The band included Buck Clayton (tp), Dicky Wells (tb), Tommy Gwaltney (cl,as), Buddy Tate (ts), Danny Bank (bar), Dick Wellstood (p), Kenny Burrell (g), Milt Hinton (b) and Oliver Jackson (d). I requested Kenny Burrell because I had sat in with him.

"The album was included among Candid’s first batch of releases and received a lot of attention. It recently was reissued by Fresh Sound in Barcelona, along with my second album for Atlantic—You Never Know. The second album was recorded because pianist John Lewis, who had been named to the jazz A&R team at Atlantic, had heard me sing at the Mars Club in Paris. 

"I chose the songs we recorded with the quartet—John Lewis on piano, Jim Hall on guitar, Richard Davis on bass and Connie Kay on drums. The songs were Confessin the Blues, Just for a Thrill, Lover, Come Back to Me and Tain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do. [Photo above, from left, John Lewis, Nancy Harrow and Jim Hall, courtesy of Nancy Harrow]

"Later that month, I recorded with the Gary McFarland Orchestra. John Lewis was the A&R man on that session, too, and he chose the arrangers—himself, Gary and Jimmy Jones, who scored one of the tunes. Only one of the four songs that Gary (above) arranged was chosen by me—No One Knows Me. John suggested the other three. Two he had written and the third was by Gary. I chose those from among a larger group that John presented to me.

"I didn’t know three of the songs before I recorded them: Why Are You Blue?; No One Knows Just What Love Holds in Store; and Song for the Dreamer. I rehearsed with John before the session and learned them. I didn’t meet Gary or work with him before he wrote the arrangements, and I didn’t hear the arrangement until we were in the studio.

"The sessions were all recorded at Atlantic Studios. This included the sessions with Gary’s arrangements as well as the quartet sides and the string sessions. I have some great photos from the recording sessions, because a friend of mine, Gene Laurent, was a professional photographer and came to the recording. [Photo above, Gary McFarland]

"I met Gary through Bob Brookmeyer (above) before the recording, but very casually. My impression of him was that he was very good-looking and efficient. We didn’t talk much at the session. I was in a booth during the recording of these four tunes and the string sessions, but not with the quartet. I have no memory of how many takes were done.

"I can’t offer much in the way of insights into Gary’s music based on this session. I do remember thinking the harmonies were modern and different, and that I was impressed by Phil Woods’ playing, which I had heard for the first time in those sessions. I knew Dick Katz, bassist Tommy Williams, Connie Kay and Jim Hall before the session. I didn't know the others in the septet personally. I wouldn’t say the arrangements were difficult to sing against, but I think the only song where I was completely relaxed was No One Knows Me, which I had made a demo of before the session, with Dick and Tommy. [Photo above, Dick Katz]

"I married young and had my first child just after the Atlantic albums were released. My second son was born six years later. Rock was dominating the music scene, so I took a job editing a literary magazine called American Journal. Eventually I returned to singing in the late 1970s when the music I sang was coming back. I recorded for Audiophile with a trio—Jack Wilkins on piano, Rufus Reid on bass and Billy Hart on drums, with sketch arrangements by Bob Brookmeyer. The 1978 album was called Anything Goes. The title song was a duet with Rufus.

"A little over 20 years ago I began writing my own songs. Several of them appeared on my Secrets album for Soul Note, recorded in 1990 and ‘91. In 1993, I began writing songs based on novels. The first was Lost Lady and was based on a Willa Cather novel. For this project I needed a male voice, and Vernel Bagneris joined me on the recording.  Arrangements were written by pianist Dick Katz, and we had Ray Drummond on bass, Ben Riley on drums, and Phil Woods on alto sax and clarinet. 

"This album was followed by The Adventures of Maya the Bee, which were songs I had written based on a German children’s story written by Waldemar Bonsels in 1912. I recorded the album in 1998 with Roland Hanna, Grady Tate (singing male insect characters), Daryl Sherman singing the role of Maya, and me singing female insect characters. We had first recorded it as a demo in 1994. I thought it could be made into an animated film and tried to find a home for it in Hollywood. 

"Roland Hanna (above) had advised against it, saying they always stole everything in Hollywood. But I didn’t listen. Sure enough, two movies about insects appeared about a year after I sent the script around—A Bug’s Life and Antz.  So we had to wait a few years before recording the CD, and it wasn’t released until 2000. 

"By that time I had decided to turn Maya into a puppet show set to the music on the CD. We found a great puppet-maker in Poland, and opened our show in 2000 at the Culture Project on Bleecker Street, directed by Will Pomerantz (above) with an adaptation by Rachel Klein. It was well received, and the show ran once a week for seven years at the theater. 

"By that time, on a trip to Japan, I met someone who worked for the OLC Group, a leisure and entertainment company. She wanted to bring the show to Japan, and that happened as well. They built their own puppets and did an elaborate production that toured 10 cities in Japan over two years. They also recorded the songs in Japanese, sung by some great Japanese actors and singers. Last year, Mayawas performed again for a season at the Culture Project, this time with a modernized set and video visuals.

"I did three more of these projects. One of them was The Marble Faun in 1997, based on a Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, which I recorded with Roland Hanna’s arrangements and a great group featuring Roland on piano, Paul West on bass, Akira Tana on drums, Jack Wilkins on guitar and a string quartet. We performed The Marble Faun as a concert at the Culture Project when it was uptown on 91st St. We had the same cast as on the CD but also had actors acting the parts.

"This CD is the basis of the musical we are performing at the Clurman Theatre starting May 19. I wrote a script with director Will Pomerantz, which changes the locale from Hawthorne’s Rome of 1860 to New Orleans in 1950. We have an amazing group of actor-singers and a great eight-piece band. I'm thrilled to hear them all singing and playing my songs so beautifully."

JazzWax tracks: Many of Nancy Harrow's albums can be found at Spotify. Here are her albums at Amazon.

JazzWax clips: Here's Nancy Harrow with Gary McFarland's arrangement of Song for the Dreamer, with a fabulous clarinet solo by Phil Woods...

Here's No One Knows Me, with Gary McFarland's arrangement...

Here's Nancy singing I've Got the World on a String...

JazzWax note: To receive the reduced ticket price ($39), you need the following discount code: TRFLTH39. To buy tickets at this reduced price, go here and enter the promo code in the box on the home page. Or by phone, call (800) 872-8997 and provide the promo code.

Used with permission by Marc Myers