Awhile ago I came across a reissue of two early ‘60s albums by Nancy Harrow titled Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues (on www.freshsoundrecords.com). Her phrasing and style completely knocked me out, and the fact that she soon afterwards dumped the music scene to have a family and write children’s books made her mystery even more obsessive. I found a handful of her later sessions, and have learned that she’s still alive and well in New York. Can we Californians put together some cash and fly her out here for a week or so? Judging by these albums, she’s still worth the admission price.
Secrets is a Soul Note release from 1991 that has her in the company of Clark Terry/tp, Dick Katz/p, Ray Drummond/b and Ben Riley/dr running through some amazing material. She sounds like she just popped out of a birthday cake on the bouncy “Guess Who’s In Town” and delivers a pillow talk reading of “If You Were Mine.” Clark Terry’s horn on “Rock it for Me” has a great growl, and Harrow sounds like she’s chucking his chin through the lyrics, while she can also deliver a classic kiss-off on “So Why Am I Surprised?” Where has this disc been all my life?
From 1998, You’re Nearer has Harrow with no less than Sir Roland Hanna/p, Bob Brookmeyer/tb, Ray Drummond/b and Terri Lyne Carrington/dr going from Tin Pan Alley delights like “You’re Not the Only Oyster in the Stew” to a deep down blues on “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” Hanna’s accompaniment on “Mean to Me” and “You’re Nearer” are subtle and simpatico, while she and the team go mysterioso on Lionel Richie’s “Hello.” I’m naming my goldfish 
after this lady!
A 1995-96 set of gigs in NYC with Hanna and Paul West/b shows what she can do with an audience, as she’s intimate, personal and alluring on ”Maybe It’s Because I Love You Too Much” and “You Go To My Head.” She returns to some of her earlier material, but the real delight is a bluesy take of Paul McCartney’s “Fixing a Hole” that sounds like it was custom made for a jazz combo. Her own material such as “He’s Gone” is just as impressive-if she can cook and looks good in a bathing suit, she’s got my vote for Mrs. America!
The last disc is a “Story in Jazz for Children…and Adults.” Sort of like a jazzy version of Peter and the Wolf except there’s a cat, a Buddhist Monk, and well, you get the idea. It’s like those old books you’d read as a kid that had you listen to the story via music and told you when to turn the page, but here you’ve got Frank Wess, Gerry Neiwood, Kenny Barron, George 
Mraz and Clark Terry as your childhood friends. Not a bad way to spend an hour!