Articles

Music Is Forever - Farewell to Annie Ross

by Mary Foster Conklin
August 3, 2020

In the first hour, a special tribute to Jazz Master Annie Ross (who sadly passed days before her 90th birthday), plus new releases from Mark Masters, Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers (a 1959 never released studio recording!), Jimmy Heath, Eva Cortés and Bettye Lavette, with birthday shoutouts to Margaret Whiting, Joanne Brackeen, Lisa Maxwell, Rufus Wainwright, Janis Siegel, Nneena Freelon and Cynthia Scott. Thanks for listening and please continue to support all of these fine musicians, buy their recordings ...

Annie Ross: A Handful Of Songs

by Roger Farbey
October 19, 2016

This release on British label Él Records sells itself short since it's very much more than just A Handful Of Songs. It's actually more like a veritable cornucopia of songs. Covering two CDs, in addition to the title album there's A Gasser! and the original cast of the London Production of the revue Cranks, named after John Cranko, who wrote and devised the show with music composed by John Addison. There's a “taster" selection of tracks from four albums by ...

Annie Ross: To Lady with Love

by John Ephland
October 21, 2014

Her spoken-word introduction is like an incantation. “To Lady" may only be 46 seconds long, but it has a lasting impact on everything that follows. Veteran singer (and actor) Annie Ross' To Lady With Love has the potential to unsettle, calm the nerves, transport you to another time and place. Whatever it does, if you let it affect you, this music will likely alter everything that happens to you the rest of the day, or night. After all, along with ...

Annie Ross: To Lady with Love

by Jack Bowers
August 21, 2014

London-born, Scottish-bred singer Annie Ross, who is perhaps best known (with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks) as part of the hip vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (LHR) in the 1950s and '60s, was eighty-three years old when this earnest tribute to Billie Holiday, To Lady with Love, was recorded in 2013. At her advanced age, Ross is far more stylist than singer, a fact that is further amplified by the slender backing of only two guitarists, father Bucky and ...

Annie Ross: To Lady with Love

by C. Michael Bailey
August 20, 2014

If you want to hear the best Annie Ross, listen to King Pleasure Sings / Annie Ross Sings (Fantasy, 1952). If you want to hear the most empathic and honest Annie Ross, listen to To Lady with Love. Ross is in her early to mid-80s and her voice is not what it was in the 50s and '60s, but her passion, grace and intelligence surpasses all previous recordings. This is a late autumn--early winter voice, to be sure. This recording ...

Annie Ross: Billie Holiday, Lady in Satin

by William Ellis
June 9, 2013

She was my hero, she was my mentor, she was my idol. I got to know her very very well and I was very proud that I did, because she was a real buddy of mine. I think there's a whole life in this voice for her to sing the songs that she sings; I mean, you could cry listening to her and I just think she was like a beautiful ebony statue. Great songs.

Annie Ross and Stevie Holland at The Metropolitan Room, NYC

by Michael P. Gladstone
June 15, 2007

During the month of May, there was a most unusual pairing of jazz vocalists--the legendary Annie Ross and rising star Stevie Holland, both performing every Tuesday night at The Metropolitan Room on Manhattan's West 22nd Street. When I caught them on May 22, they were both in fine form, their joint performance inviting some quick comparisons.

Annie Ross' career has been so varied that she could author several books about each of the genres that she's become involved with. ...