“If I were 22 today, I wouldn’t want to be in the industry.” Thus spake songstress and National Endowment for the Arts “Jazz Master,” Nancy Wilson.

At last week’s Monterey Jazz Festival, Wilson and frequent Napa visitor Clairdee took to the stage in one the festival’s grounds locations known as Dizzy’s Den. It was billed as “Life, Love and Harmony: The Marriage of Music and Management.”

The alliteratively titled event was to feature John Levy, the personal manager for both Wilson and Clairdee, but he wasn’t able to make the festival. “He’s just fine,” Wilson told the large audience. “All the tests look good. He’s just tired. After all, John’s 96.”

Of her own 55-year career, Wilson said the business has changed drastically. She decried the current music scene, noting problems with both artists and audiences. “I was grounded in that place where the swing is,” she said of her early days, adding, “I never had a musician try to entice me to drugs. They were very protective.”

At 72, Wilson has quit the touring circuit, but still does a few select shows and concerts. She performed at Monterey’s main arena stage for the Saturday night concert, a tribute to the late Cannonball Adderley, with whom Wilson recorded a 1962 session, considered by many to be among her best and a jazz classic. Unfortunately, Wilson reiterated much of her afternoon conversation, depriving the concert audience of some of the music they came to hear.

She notes she has surrounded herself with “people who make me look great,” noting her close associations with Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Carmen McRae.

Both singers heaped praise on Levy, once a top jazz bassist who recently finished a new book, “Men, Women and Girl Singers.” He wrote in the introduction, “I’d like to be remembered as someone who helped musicians and singers spread the love of jazz around the world. But don’t print my obituary yet; there’s still more I have to do. In the last two years I have signed two new artists, gotten divorced and then engaged, and moved into a new house and office. Never say ‘too late’ to me.”

Wilson and Clairdee share a philosophy for picking tunes and approaching their art. “I am a jazz-inspired storyteller,” Clairdee says. “I choose songs that have some relevance to my life experiences and to human vulnerabilities. I want the music I sing to stir emotions, to make a connection, to be accessible.”

Wilson concurred. “You need to pick your material wisely.”

She added a sad note. “My life has changed drastically in the last two months.” Her husband of 35 years, Rev. Wiley Burton, died on Aug. 1.

John Levy has represented Wilson since 1959. They never had a written contract. “We trust one another,” she said.

The two singers agreed they don’t want to be called “divas.” Wilson equates the term to “bitch.”

Wilson wanted Levy, who also managed Cannonball Adderley to represent her, and she wanted Capitol Records — which she called “a singer’s label” — as her label. Within four weeks of her arrival in New York, she was called to fill in for Irene Reid at The Blue Morocco. It was a success, and the club booked her four nights a week.

But she was also working as a receptionist by day. Anxious to make her musical mark, Wilson called John Levy and he went to catch her show.

“John called me the very next day. He set up a session to record a demo,” Nancy recalls. “Ray Bryant and I went in and recorded ‘Guess Who I Saw Today,’ ‘Sometimes I’m Happy,’ and two other songs. We sent them to Capitol and within five days the phone rang. Within six weeks I had all the things I wanted.”

That was in the 1950s, and the business has changed. “We now have to hunt for jazz (radio) stations — and for good records. Those of us who care about music of substance are not heard.”

Clairdee agrees. “They (record companies) expect you to be both singer and songwriter.”

Despite that, Wilson emphasizes, “I won’t try to be anyone else. John respected that. It’s family first.”

Wilson said her manager and mentor Levy is a wonderful person but can be tough when it’s called for. She noted his motto: “Take no s---.”   

Her own words by which to live are a bit more traditional, but nevertheless meaningful: “To thine own self be true.”