On the blog known as Brew Lite’s Jazz Tales, Bruno Leicht just posted a piece about jazz vocalese. It is centered on the recordings of Annie Ross and includes a rare video clip of her singing “Twisted,” with Count Basie accompanying. It’s a treat.
Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...
P.S. — I love the funny moment when she cues the Count into his solo, and when he politely asks her for another chorus. Then, watch his finger, as he gives her the cue. — Fantastic!
A friend ( Dave Weiner) tells me that the Annie Ross ‘Twisted’ clip is from a commercially available DVD of ‘Playboy After Dark’.
Thanks for drawing attention to it – wonderful !
I have a question that does not have anything to do with Annie Ross, but it does pertain to 1950’s jazz (I could not find any recent Rifftides post to relate this to!). I have posted to Rifftides before. About a month ago when I was doing my Saturday night jazz show titled “The Gold Standard” on KMHD in Portland, Oregon I received a call from a listener on the studio hotline. I had just played “The Vidiot” by Ken Nordine, from Ken Nordine’s Word Jazz. This track was recorded back in 1957 with the Fred Katz group. In this piece, Mr. Nordine interviews a poor fellow who is addicted to television. The fellow who called me said that back in the late 1950’s when he first heard “The Vidiot” he heard that the voice of the Vidiot was actually Art Pepper. The caller added that he heard that Art Pepper had experimented with acting while in L.A. in the late 50’s. I am an Art Pepper enthusiast and I know what his voice sounds like, and I must admit that the voice of The Vidiot *does* sound like Art Pepper. Do you have any readers who might know for sure?
All we can do is ask. Let’s see what comes back.
I asked Laurie Pepper, Art’s widow. She said, “I just found it online. It’s not Art. Nobody sounded like Art. I’d recognize his voice. I recognize it on the old Kenton jam session tapes from 1950.”