Excelling at the art of
blues
balladry demands that a musician possess great feeling but also great control. No surprise then, that one of its greatest practitioners,
Nancy Wilson
, has both traits in abundance.
Save Your Love for Me: Nancy Wilson Sings the Great Blues Ballads
is one in a loose series of three
Capitol
compilations to compile her late-'50s and early-'60s prime, the others focusing on the Great American Songbook and the
torch song
. The title track leads off the set, as it should, considering that
Wilson
's co-billed collaborative LP with
Cannonball Adderley
's quintet is the highlight of her career, and no single performance proves it more than this one (both
Cannonball
's alto and brother
Nat
's cornet echo her weary yet hopeful tone). The rest of the songs involve a larger band -- excepting two tracks from her only other major quintet collaboration,
The Swingin's Mutual!
with
George Shearing
-- but
preserves the late-night feel (helped greatly by the sympathetic charts of
Billy May
and
Mike Melvoin
's organ). Throughout her career
proved her talents in many fields --
jazz
singing,
ballads
,
pop
music, crossovers -- but she never sounded better than when she was given an unhurried arrangement to stretch out on a slow
, and any listener who wanted to concentrate only on the essence of
could hardly do better than purchase this collection. ~ John Bush