Longtime Arizona jazz vocalist Nancy Gee was presented the 2008 Jazz in Arizona Lifetime Achievement Award by JiA president Stan Rader at a concert following the organization's recent annual meeting.
The award was established to recognize those who have enriched the legacy of jazz by making significant contributions in Arizona. Previous recipients were Nadine Jansen, Dave Cook, Keith Greko, Armand Boatman, Prince Shell, Margo Reed and Charles Lewis.
Among the high points of Nancy Gee's career was a month-long booking in Montreux, Switzerland, at Harry's New York Bar at the Palace Hotel during the summer of 1995. She performed on two two-week cruises on the Crystal Symphony, to Alaska in 1997 and to the Mediterranean in 1998. She also was selected to star in a Sarah Vaughan tribute, performing with a 165-piece Los Angeles orchestra that included arrangements by Quincy Jones.
In 2005-06, after being treated for cancer, Nancy performed five sold-out concerts that celebrated queens of jazz Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. She continues to perform in clubs, at benefit events and for festivals.
She moved to Scottsdale, AZ, from Connecticut in the mid-eighties. In 1989, she was hired to perform in Mary Elaine's at the newly opened Phoenician Resort. It turned into a 16-year booking, during which time Nancy helped make the venue a destination for returning visitors from across the nation and around the world. Among the listeners there were Tina Turner, who complimented Nancy on her sound, and Celine Dion, who gave her a thumbs up."
She issued her first album in 1990, a cassette titled “Velvet," recently reissued as a CD. “People staying at the hotel would take it back home, and when their friends came to Phoenix, they would come to hear me in person." She released “Nancy in the Key of Gee" in 1997 and her third album, “Dedications," in 2003.
Jazz in Arizona, Inc. is a 31-year-old non-profit organization with the mission to support the art of live jazz and to cultivate interest in jazz through youth education, scholarship opportunities and community outreach. Benefits of membership include discounts on the Kerr jazz series, free or discounted admission to monthly live-jazz parties, and a newsletter with comprehensive listings of jazz events and venues. For more information go to www.jazzinaz.org or call 480-994-0807.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
