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Annie Ross: Let Me Sing
“ ...it must have been wonderful if...you were just a fly on the wall with Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter and George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. I can imagine one of them phoning up the other one and saying Ive got it! Ive found it! I spent all night but I found it! ”
She may be best known as member of seminal vocalese group Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, but septuagenarian singer Annie Ross has also enjoyed a long and successful career are a solo performer, with over a dozen releases to her name. All About Jazz caught up with Ross to discuss her new record on Consolidated Arts Productions, Let Me Sing.
All About Jazz: Your new CD is called Let Me Sing. Is that the reason you're still out there performing and chasing around the globe?
Annie Ross: Well, yes. Part of it. It comes with the territory. But I love performing. And there are so many wonderful songs that have never been sung to any degree except maybe years and years ago. And I think to let the people hear exactly what they're missing is important to me. And I love words. I always have. And to think when you contrast what's on today and what's going around. I mean, you can't understand the words. And I've spoken to young kids who say that it's not about the words, it's about the feel. Well, that's their take on it. It's not mine. And I was just saying to some one the other day—my God it must have been wonderful if your were in the inner circle or if you were just a fly on the wall with Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter and George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. I can imagine them—because lyric writing is such a craft—I can imagine one of them phoning up the other one and saying "I've got it! I've found it! I spent all night but I found it! And that to me is what lyric writing should be. It should be a craft. That's what I find lacking today.
AAJ: So you need to keep showing everybody what it is.
AR: What a real song should sound like and should say.
AAJ: Well, I agree with you because so many of the things, the original material that some people are writing are not really songs. They're fragments. They don't have an AABA.
AR: I know. And the terrible kind of sloppiness in writing. To rhyme "sue with "loon. I really hate that.
AAJ: There is another thing. If you get a lyric, a really good lyric, whatever the writer meant you don't have to know. There's something that you can bring.
AR: Well, it's your interpretation of what he's written. I think one of the most terrific lyrics is "I Wish I Were In Love Again. "The self deception that believes a lie. What a great line. Brilliant.
AAJ: I understand that you just came back from across the pond. And what were you doing across the pond?
AR: Well, my whole family was from Scotland. And I have grown to love Scotland. I really have. They have wonderful writers and directors and actors and producers and wonderful stuff going on. And it's funny, but when the BBC needs a Scot for a TV, they'll ring London to get someone to come up which is crazy because they've got them right there. I love the attitude. Glasgow is very much like New York. They're very up front. They'll tell you their opinion even if you don't ask for it. They have very dry humor. It's quite wonderful. I love the food because it's just great food. People don't know. Great food. So, a friend of mine who works for Cameron Mackintosh, the producer, talked about this for about six months. He said, "You know, there is a possibility that we may do a concert version of Follies. And I haven't got it together yet, but would you be interested? And I said, "Yes. I'd love to do it. So, it finally all came together and I finished work on a Wednesday and I took a plane. I was in Glasgow Thursday night. I got off the plane. I went to rehearsal. It was in the concert hall in Glasgow which is new, which has great acoustics. It was a 52-piece orchestra which made me cry. It was just beautiful. Are you familiar with Follies?
AAJ: Yes.
AR: Everybody in it was a professional down to their toes. They were all very big Scottish stars. The overture...ooh...and then I sang. I sang "I'm Still Here. And I just loved it. It's a great memory. And that's what I was doing there. I got on the plane and came home and then went to work at Danny's, which I love because it's "Hamish. It really is. It's a little room. I feel like I'm in my living room.
AAJ: I've got to say this, but you connect so with your audience. It's like you're singing to them in the middle of your living room or their living room.
AR: Letting them...not letting them but sharing things that I've loved for years.
AAJ: I love what you do with "One Meatball. It's such a fun thing. You should do "Frim Fram Sauce.
AR: There are a lot of Nat Cole songs that are great. I want to do "Meet Me In No Special Place and I'll Be There At No Particular Time. I should really get his composite. He recorded everything.
AAJ: Yes. Basically, he was Capitol Records at the beginning. He was their chief artist for a very long time
AR: There's a story about how he rang up once and they used to answer by saying, "This is Capitol Records, the company that Nat Cole built. Or something like that. And he rang up and they had made a change to somebody else.
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