R.I.P. Annie Ross

[Hardbopjazz]

She past away today. Now she can join Dave and Jon for the gig. Time to spin some Lambert Hendricks and Ross.  

[mikeweil]

R.I.P. - one of my favourite singers ever. The grand lady of vocalese has joined the heavenly jazz choir. 

I once did "Twisted" with a local singer - just vocals and congas. 

[GA Russell]

RIP.  I remember seeing her once on an episode of The Saint!

[Hardbopjazz]

I sat next to her at Mezzrow jazz club in NYC a good 3 years ago. I didn’t know it was her until at the end of the set Spike Wilner announced she was in the audience. 

[Teasing the Korean]

She was awesome in Short Cuts.  

I love her version of "Give Me the Simple Life."

RIP.

[mjzee]

43 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

R.I.P. - one of my favourite singers ever. The grand lady of vocalese has joined the heavenly jazz choir. 

I once did "Twisted" with a local singer - just vocals and congas. 

Basie!  And I thought she was British so was surprised by the lack of an English accent, but I now see she came to the U.S. when she was four.  

What a delight.  RIP.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, she was seemingly off and on in England throughout her career, at least early on.

RIP, what a voice.

[AllenLowe]

ah, too bad. Lenny Bruce's former girlfriend, also.

[AllenLowe]

isn't she in a movie with Judy Garland?

[JSngry]

best vocal version ever imo? RIP.

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

RIP

3 hours ago, Hardbopjazz said:

She past away today. Now she can join Dave and Jon for the gig. Time to spin some Lambert Hendricks and Ross.  

RIP.   Your sentiment is repeated a lot, but truth of the matter is its rooted in fact.  

[soulpope]

Annie Ross R.I.P ....

[EKE BBB]

R.I.P.

[sidewinder]

Very sad news. She was last resident here in the 60s I think and ran the club ‘Annie’s Room’. RIP.

Remember seeing her in at least one 80s movie - a horror film, I think. Extremely versatile !

Edited July 22, 2020 by sidewinder

[Bluesnik]

8 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

Lenny Bruce's former girlfriend, also.

Oh, I didn't know that. I have Lenny's book How to talk dirty and influence people.

[Hardbopjazz]

11 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

isn't she in a movie with Judy Garland?

Movie was called “Presenting Lily Mars”. 1943. 

[Mark Stryker]

11 hours ago, JSngry said:

best vocal version ever imo? RIP.

 

Yes --tho not the most swinging band,but it hardly matters.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Mark Stryker

[JSngry]

8 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

Yes --tho not the most swinging band,but it hardly matters.

Not at all a swinging band, but that just adds to the vibe of a woman who recognizes that her existence to be spent solely in being used for the manipulation and benefit of others, that her fate in life is to show up and act like she's enjoying it - whatever it is. And then get paid. Period.

I don't know that I've ever heard a less "coy" rendition of that lyric. Seems like everybody else sings it to men, and puts a wink in it. This one is not "to" anybody, it's FROM somebody and it's dark as hell.

[Mark Stryker]

33 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Not at all a swinging band, but that just adds to the vibe of a woman who recognizes that her existence to be spent solely in being used for the manipulation and benefit of others, that her fate in life is to show up and act like she's enjoying it - whatever it is. And then get paid. Period.

I don't know that I've ever heard a less "coy" rendition of that lyric. Seems like everybody else sings it to men, and puts a wink in it. This one is not "to" anybody, it's FROM somebody and it's dark as hell.

Exactly.

This is the only jazz version I know that gets at the real  grit of prostitution. The verse helps set it up, but that's not all. Her swinging phrasing, the sensual way she straddles the tempo, and the way she italicizes certain words with a sly smirk or snarl, gets under the skin of the song.  Yet also note the brassy, exuberant shakes she adds to the words "old" and "new" in the second bridge -- like maybe there's a part of walking the streets she kinda digs. Or maybe she's just pretending to enjoy it. After all, that's the gig.
 

Edited July 22, 2020 by Mark Stryker

[Jim Duckworth]

   This is the one I go to regularly.

[JSngry]

29 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

  Yet also note the brassy, exuberant shakes she adds to the words "old" and "new" in the second bridge -- like maybe there's a part of walking the streets she kinda digs. Or maybe she's just pretending to enjoy it. After all, that's the gig.
 

Or maybe it's stress release, a way of trying to shake it away because counting the numbers would lead to a breakdown, the reality of just how much "old" and "new" there has been. There are statistics to be had there, whether or not a person can get to them internally or not.

Dark stuff.

And i think it's not accidental.

[medjuck]

8 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Very sad news. She was last resident here in the 60s I think and ran the club ‘Annie’s Room’. RIP.

Remember seeing her in at least one 80s movie - a horror film, I think. Extremely versatile !

According to IMDB she was in about 15 movies in the '80s and '90s. In those years she was part of Robert Altman's repertory company.

In July 1968 I attended  some sort of anti-Vietnam War event at the Royal Albert Hall which is now remembered because The Nice created, and then burned, an American flag while they played Bernstein's America. (They were forever-after banned from the Hall.)  But I remember it chiefly because Annie and Jon Hendricks did a set together. 

[gmonahan]

A long life, beautifully lived. R. I. P.

 

 

gregmo

[medjuck]

I just learned that there was a crowd funding to keep her in her apartment while she was in hospice.  Was that mentioned here?  

[duaneiac]

14 minutes ago, medjuck said:

I just learned that there was a crowd funding to keep her in her apartment while she was in hospice.  Was that mentioned here?  

I posted about an Annie Ross GoFundMe campaign here back in April.