Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Nancie Banks was born Nancie Manzuk on July 29, 1951 in Morgantown, West Virginia and as a child sang in a church choir with her father. She learned piano from her mother beginning at age four. For a while she lived in Pittsburgh, then relocated to New York City in the Eighties where she studied with Edward Boatner, Barry Harris, and Alberto Socarras.

Performing with both small ensembles and big bands, during the late 1980s she joined Charlie Byrd’s band, met and married bandmate and trombonist Clarence Banks. Among the musicians she worked with were Lionel Hampton, Dexter Gordon, Walter Davis Jr., Bob Cunningham, Duke Jordan, Diane Schuur, George Benson, Woody Shaw, Jon Hendricks, Walter Booker, Bross Townsend, Charlie Persip, Walter Bishop, Jr., and Sadik Hakim.

In 1989 she founded her own big band and recorded four albums between 1992 and 2001. She also worked on film soundtracks, including Mo’ Better Blues and Housesitter, and in Broadway musicals such as Swingin’ On a Star. During the 1990s, she taught jazz at the City University of New York.

Vocalist, bandleader and educator Nancie Banks passed away in New York City in November 2002. Her body was discovered in her home and the precise day she died is unknown.

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