Photo: Barbara Bordnick/Courtesy of the artist.
Annie Ross On Piano Jazz, with Guest Gost Jon Weber
by Grant Jackson
Vocalist Annie Ross was born Annabelle McCauley Allan Short in London on July 25, 1930. Her parents were Scottish vaudevillians Jack Short and May Dalziel Short, and Ross was brought up in Los Angeles by her aunt, singer Ella Logan. She made her debut at age 4 on Paul Whiteman's radio show, where she won a contest that led to a small contract with MGM.Ross made her initial mark on jazz with her 1952 vocal treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray's "Twisted." She is one of the earliest practitioners of the singing style known as vocalese, in which the singer sets original lyrics, as opposed to the nonsense syllables of scat singing, to an instrumental jazz solo. "Twisted" has been recorded by Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, Maria Friedman and many others.
She is best known for her work with the vocal ensemble Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, which formed in 1957 and took Ross around the world. The group won a Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group in 1962, but was permanently disbanded in 1966 after the death of founding member Dave Lambert.
In the mid-'60s, Ross opened her own London nightclub, Annie's Room, which featured performances by Joe Williams, Stuff Smith, Erroll Garner, Anita O'Day, Jon Hendricks and Ross' one-time roommate, singer Blossom Dearie.
Annie Ross has recorded with some of the best-known names in jazz, including members of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims, Hoagy Carmichael and Tommy Flanagan. She is also an accomplished actress in films such as Presenting Lily Mars (1943), Superman III (1983), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Short Cuts (1993) and Blue Sky (1994). She has also appeared on stage in Cranks (1955), The Threepenny Opera (1972) with Vanessa Redgrave, Kennedy's Children (1975) and The Pirates of Penzance (1982).
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