These Colors I Hear When Nancy Wilson Sings Turned To Blue

Title

These Colors I Hear When Nancy Wilson Sings Turned To Blue

Artist

Aberjhani

Medium

Mixed Media - Mixed Media - Silk-featherbrush

Description

Silk-Featherbrush Number 10

Nancy Wilson (b. 1937) is an American jazz song-stylist whose storied career has spanned half a century. In that time she has won 3 Grammy Awards, recorded more than 70 albums, and garnered acclaim from audiences and critics alike around the world. The album/CD which inspired the art seen here is titled "Turned to Blue." It earned Ms. Wilson a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2006.

Her voice was keeping me company in 2018 when a friend alerted me that a vintage broadcast of a 1960s Ed Sullivan variety entertainment TV show featuring the singer was airing one evening. Unlike most of Sullivan's musical guests, Wilson remained onstage to perform two numbers rather than one. That should tell you something about the caliber of her musical artistry.

The song "Turned to Blue" is based on a poem by the late great author Dr. Maya Angelou (1928–2014), and originally titled "My Life Has Turned to Blue," so it is no wonder that her genius plus that of Nancy Wilson's cast a kind of spell over me. What form the results of that spell might take was not something I could imagine until I began meditating on the different colors I seemed to hear--as opposed to see-- when listening to the singer. Rather than go on about how different layers of this piece were constructed throughout the year, I will just add that the expressionistic image of Wilson (the beautiful subject of many photographer's focus) was inspired by lighting and framing used in photographs of her taken by Charles Bush.

I end this description with Angelou's poem-lyrics posted below followed by a YouTube link to Wilson performing the song:

Our Summers gone,
the golden days are through.
The rosy dawns I used to
wake with you
have turned to gray,
my life has turned to blue.

The once-green lawns
glisten now with dew.
Red robin's gone,
down to the South he flew.
Left here alone,
my life has turned to blue.

I've heard the news
that winter too will pass,
that spring's a sign
that summer's due at last.
But until I see you
lying in green grass,
my life has turned to blue.
------Maya Angelou

You can check out Nancy Wilson singing "Turned to Blue" live on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/af4G2fQoo2E

Aberjhani
December 2018

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Uploaded

December 5th, 2018

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