Around 1955 (I must have been in kindergarten), I went to a concert at the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle and for the first time heard Ernestine Anderson. She sang with a big band. I was impressed with the quality of her voice, her phrasing, her time, the lack of gimmickry in her delivery and how she looked in her red gown. A year or so later, when she was in Sweden she recorded with Harry Arnold's band. The long-playing record that resulted, Hot Cargo, was one of the best vocal albums of … [Read more...]

Exactly how Anderson keeps her contralto so plush and supple ranks among the sweet imponderables of the art of jazz singing.... she remains an eloquent song interpreter with a broad array of expressive devices at her command. -- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, September, 2004 Anderson remains a wonderfully expressive vocalist, able to pierce the emotional core of a lyric with seemingly little effort. -- Mike Joyce, The Washington Post, May, 1999 … [Read more...]