William N. Law Blog: Pinky Winters: Lonely One

First, let me say there are no bad Pinky Winters albums—and they span more than 50 years. Which is extraordinary, since many singers' early albums are often best and get progressively lighter as the voice ages and work slows. Second, great musicians have always been smitten with Winters's phrasing and tone, which is reedy, jazzy and deftly inventive. So it comes as no surprise that her big inspiration from the time she was 15 was Sarah Vaughan.

On each of her albums, Winters has no problem leaving a song's melodic trail to try out different ways of working her way back. That's the bold and clever jazz musician in her, the artist who likes to take vocal risks.

Of all her albums, I rather like Lonely One the best. Not because it beats all the others but because her voice was at its young peak and her sidemen were sensational. Recorded in 1958, Winters was backed by Gerald Wiggins (p), Howard Roberts (g), Jim Wolf (b) and Chico Hamilton (d). See what I mean? The songs were Lonely One Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Cheek to Cheek, It Never Entered my Mind, You Smell So Good, Easy Living, Jeepers Creepers, I've Got Plenty of Love, Gone With the Wind, October's Dream, Pennies From Heaven and My Heart's a Child. On all tracks, Winters's voice has a relaxed innocence, yet she isn't content to sing these songs straight and knows exactly when to take risks.

Winters recorded only 10 albums. Her earliest recordings were Pinky (1954), followed by Pinky & Zoot (1954, with Zoot Sims) and Lonely One (1958). During this period, she was married to her first husband, bassist Jim Wolf, and they had a daughter. By the late 1950s, Winters divorced Wolf. Let's pick up the story from her site's bio:

Pinky got an office job to make money to raise her daughter. Eventually she met and married Bob Hardaway (who was on the NBC staff as a saxophone and reeds player), had another daughter and happily raised her children in their lovely home in the Hollywood Hills. During that time, she didn't sing for 13 years.

In 1979, Winters found a babysitter and began singing at clubs in L.A. Albums after she returned to clubs were The Shadow of Your Smile (1983), Speak Low (1983), Let's Be Buddies (1985), As Long as There's Music (1994), Happy Madness (1994), Rain Sometimes (2001), World on a String (2006) and Winters in Summer (2010). [Photo above, from left, of Pinky Winters, pianist Lou Levy and singer Jackie Cain]

Her voice was so good from the start that you wonder why she wasn't a bigger deal. She certainly had the chops. My guess is that as a new mom in the early '50s in L.A., touring was out. And without extensive touring, she was a lot less appealing to labels that counted on their artists to performing and sell records while building a brand.

If you're unfamiliar with Winters, you're in for quite a treat.

JazzWax tracks: Pinky Winters's Lonely One is hard to find and goes for upward of $70. It looks like the album and her other recordings are available at her site. But be warned, I'm not sure it's still active, since I sent an email last week and never heard back.

JazzWax note: For more on Winters's bio, go here. For her discography, go here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Winters's entire Pinky album for Vantage in 1954...