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Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Catching Up With Annie Ross

February 28, 2007 by Doug Ramsey

To jazz fans, Annie Ross will always be a third of the nonpareil singing group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. But she left L-H-R in 1962. Ever since, she has been up to her ears in a variety of music and entertainment ventures. Will Friedwald caught up with the indefatigable Ms. Ross in New York and talked with her about her kaleidoscopic show business life and current singing career. She told Will about Bob Weinstock of Prestige Records asking her in 1952 if she could write lyrics to a group of instrumental solos.

I took the records home to my little one-room flat and the one that caught my ear was Wardell Gray’s “Twisted” — that suggested a whole mess of things to me.

Ross’s recording of “Twisted” became a jazz hit and led to her teaming with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks. To read more about Annie Ross In Friedwald’s New York Sun column, go here.

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Comments

  1. John Birchard says

    February 28, 2007 at 4:01 pm

    I only saw Ms. Ross “live’ once… but what a once it was. It was in the early 60’s at the Village Vanguard around the time when Lambert,Hendricks and Ross were at their peak, when Time Magazine was calling them “the James Joyces of Jive” (someone find that writer and punish him or her severely).
    A friend and I had good seats in the packed club. We waited – and waited some more, because L, H & R were up at Madison Square Garden participating in some sort of rally or fundraiser where a fistful of celebs, performers, artists were called upon to appear. Their show ran late, but finally word came from a guy who ran down the stairs and shouted,”They’re here!”
    In seconds, the three of them swept down the stairs and into the room, all full of energy and excitement, pumped by the reception they’d gotten uptown. The guys were in sharp tuxes, Annie glowing in a long, pink gown. They took the stage to a wave of applause and cheers. They did
    not disappoint. L, H & R swung the Vanguard into bad health, hurtling through their repertoire with joy and humor.
    They were at the top of their form that cold winter night. Some question whether what they did was really jazz, using other people’s solos as vehicles for their skills and enthusiam. I never had any trouble with the question – and I suggest those who do, listen to “Sing a Song of Basie” or the Columbia recording of “Centerpiece” with Sweets Edison, just to cite two examples. If you’re not convinced that’s jazz, see your family physician. Have the doc check your pulse.
    I, for one, am glad to learn Ms. Annie is still brightening our days.
    John Birchard

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, Cleveland and Washington, DC. His writing about jazz has paralleled his life in journalism... [Read More]

Rifftides

A winner of the Blog Of The Year award of the international Jazz Journalists Association. Rifftides is founded on Doug's conviction that musicians and listeners who embrace and understand jazz have interests that run deep, wide and beyond jazz. Music is its principal concern, but the blog reaches past... Read More...

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Doug’s Books

Doug's most recent book is a novel, Poodie James. Previously, he published Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond. He is also the author of Jazz Matters: Reflections on the Music and Some of its Makers. He contributed to The Oxford Companion To Jazz and co-edited Journalism Ethics: Why Change? He is at work on another novel in which, as in Poodie James, music is incidental.

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