Annie Ross "Loguerhythms"

[RogerF]

Perhaps the bargain of the year so far, this excellent reissue is dominated by the truly wonderful vocals of the great Annie Ross. The main item in this bundle of archive recordings is the long out of print “Loguerhythms” on which Ross is accompanied by an augmented Tony Kinsey Quintet (which includes the likes of Gordon Beck on piano, Johnny Scott on alto sax and flute and Bill Le Sage on vibes). The lyrics are by Christopher Logue (a long-standing contributor to the British satirical magazine Private Eye) and are inventive and instantly engaging and occasionally, achingly poignant. Perhaps the reason for this lyrical success is that the subtitle of the album is “Songs from the Establishment” and the underlying ethos running through these twelve numbers is patently acidic satire and also, not surprisingly, these songs were performed at Peter Cook’s Establishment Club in London’s Soho.

However, crucially, the lyrics are matched by the music, here arranged by Tony Kinsey, Stanley Myers and Reg Tilsley. First released in 1962 on the Transatlantic label this album was a unique marriage of modern British jazz and – to all intents and purposes – poetry. Some of the songs here, once heard, will stay in the memory for years – easily the jazz equivalent of all those sixties Beatles hits.

But there’s more. Christopher Logue performs seven of is his own poems accompanied by the Tony Kinsey Quintet which first appeared as the EP “Red Bird” recorded in 1959. Here though the lyrics are spoken not sung, so this may be the first poetry and jazz recording from Britain.

After this poetic interlude, Annie Ross returns with eight more numbers recorded between 1952 and 1955 and which are mainly standards. Here Ross is accompanied on the first four of these by Milt Jackson, Percy heath and Kenny Clarke plus Blossom Dearie on piano, the next two are with the Gigi Gryce Orchestra (which includes Quincy Jones on piano). The penultimate number “The times was right” by Annie Ross includes Percy Heath on bass and Art Blakey on drums. The final number “I want you to be my baby” by her erstwhile trio partner Jon Hendricks is performed by Ross accompanied by Tony Crombie and his Orchestra; recorded in 1955 this may have been one of Ross’s few or only attempts to infiltrate the nascent Rock and Roll market. Powerful though this finale is, it’s arguably better for jazz fans that she didn’t pursue this genre. Rock and Roll didn’t last too long, but Annie Ross, now in her eighties is thankfully still going strong.

[Head Man]

Thanks for the heads-up, Roger...my order's in!

[clifford_thornton]

I've been looking for an LP copy of this... long wanted to hear it. Looks like it may now be a little easier to do so.

[jlhoots]

I'm nervous about the poems.

Are they any good?

[clifford_thornton]

Heavy anti-war British modernism. Good stuff.

Not that it's necessarily the same, but how do you fare with Michael Garrick's poetry/jazz work?

[jlhoots]

Heavy anti-war British modernism. Good stuff.

Not that it's necessarily the same, but how do you fare with Michael Garrick's poetry/jazz work?

Goofy analogy - but it's sort of like mariachi music which I like for about 5 minutes.

[RogerF]

Heavy anti-war British modernism. Good stuff.

Not that it's necessarily the same, but how do you fare with Michael Garrick's poetry/jazz work?

The Annie Ross first twelve tracks (which I originally had on a Transatlantic Xtra vinyl copy and which was pretty scratched probably from overplaying it) are the best - I consider the rest to be "bonus tracks" although the Logue/Kinsey seven tracks are an interesting curio and do compare well with the Garrick poetry and jazz and also the Stan Tracey / Michael Horowitz ones. The twelve Annie Ross tracks, the actual "Loguerhythms" are possibly not to everyone's taste because they are (necessarily) in a cabaret style or even relatively similar to some of the wittier lyrics of the 60s Sondheim musicals. But the lyrics are extremely engaging and retain a political currency even now and the music is both sensitive and often exhilarating. There aren't many singers who could pull of this kind of thing successfully and Annie Ross was definitely one of them. I'd been waiting for this reissue for years and had pretty much given up - so this was a really unexpected and welcome present.

[clifford_thornton]

love the original cover art.

[king ubu]

Great cover above - is that the original?

Never heard of this, but as Mr. Sangrey once said (sorry if memory plays tricks): I'd let Annie Ross drive my truck any day! Will be looking for this!

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, the b&w cover is the one that Transatlantic used in 1963.

[sidewinder]

Saw that Kinsey 'Red Bird' EP in a local shop some years ago for not much and passed on it. Not a good move - it was gone by the next time I visited.