Annie Ross

Let Me Sing... It's What Annie Does Best

Artist Interview by: Gerard W. O'Brien

August 2006 - I had the opportunity to go to the Hollywood bowl on July 19, 2006 to see John Pizzarelli and guests perform under the stars. The guests included Bill Henderson, Kurt Elling, Tierney Sutton and Annie Ross. Each of the five singers (John also sang) was in top form. One of the real highlights of the evening was when Annie Ross sang “Twisted,” which was only up-staged when she sang “Lush Life.” It was a remarkable evening.

Several weeks before the Jazz at the Phil concert, I spoke with Annie Ross. Annie has been creating music and other art since her days in the extraordinary vocal bop group Hendricks, Lambert and Ross. Annie has just released a great new CD Let Me Sing with RED ANCHOR PRODUCTIONS. Recorded in August 2005, this album of fourteen standards features an extraordinary group of musicians, including Bucky Pizzarelli.

JAZZREVIEW:  I was looking on the Internet and there is a lot of information regarding your career and what you’ve been up until 1999. After that, there isn't that much listed. What are some of your highlights in the last 7 years?

ANNIE ROSS:  Oh boy, 7 years!  Well, I've done a play in Glasgow called The Celtic Story.

JAZZREVIEW:   What was your role in that play?

ANNIE ROSS:  The entire cast was Scottish and I played a woman who had gone to America and settled in Boston, so that was the reason if I had any kind of an accent it was Scottish with a little bit of Americana.

JAZZREVIEW:   And was the play successful?

 

ANNIE ROSS:  Oh, yes! I was in it for six months, but my brother who was a well- known comedian, actor and producer, he did a part in it about three years before I came into it.

JAZZREVIEW:   Was he still in it at the same time you were?

ANNIE ROSS:  No, because he died.

JAZZREVIEW:   Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

ANNIE ROSS:   Oh thanks.

JAZZREVIEW:  What was his name?

ANNIE ROSS:  Jimmy Logan.

JAZZREVIEW:   It's a nice Scottish name. 

ANNIE ROSS:  I also did a lot of dates in Europe and then I did dates with Jon Hendricks and I worked with him.  We did the Blue Note Philadelphia and various other places.  We did the Hollywood Bowl, which I'm doing again.

JAZZREVIEW:   That's out in my neck-of-the-woods.  Aren't you going to be there July 19th?

ANNIE ROSS:   Yes, it’s the 19th.

JAZZREVIEW:   Will you have the whole band with you from Let Me Sing?

ANNIE ROSS:   Not for that one…I'm leaving for Italy.  Let me look at my book here.  I'm going to a place called Arona.

ANNIE ROSS:  Is that North or South?

ANNIE ROSS:  That's near Lake Maggiore, which is north, the kind of Swiss. 

JAZZREVIEW:   You have a very nice Italian accent also.

ANNIE ROSS:  Oh, thank you.  I go to Arona on Thursday, and I come back, hold on, I'm back on the 7th or 8th.

JAZZREVIEW:  Is your trip to Italy a professional trip or a trip for pleasure?

ANNIE ROSS:  Both really because it's always wonderful in Italy. I'm taking my band with the personnel on the CD. They're coming with me.

JAZZREVIEW: So how many dates will you play over there?

ANNIE ROSS:  I’ll be based in one town and I think I work pretty much every day.

JAZZREVIEW:  Is that Tuscany?

ANNIE ROSS:  No, but it's near Tuscany. It’s on the lake.

JAZZREVIEW:   So hopefully it will be nice and not so hot.

ANNIE ROSS:  Well, who knows?  They're not very big on air conditioning.

JAZZREVIEW: It seems they really still love jazz in Europe.

ANNIE ROSS:  Yes, they do.

JAZZREVIEW:   And in your opinion, how do the European audiences compare with American audiences?

ANNIE ROSS:  An audience is an audience.

JAZZREVIEW:  Now with these dates that you're doing, are you doing a lot of stuff from the new album?

ANNIE ROSS:   Yes, and I'm putting in new material all the time.

JAZZREVIEW:  So what are some of the things that you've put in?

ANNIE ROSS:  A wonderful Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer song called "I Wonder What Became of Me,” a Johnny Mercer song called "Jamboree Jones” and [also] “My Old Flame.” Let's see, what else--"Cottontail,” which I'm about to put into the act, also a lot of Yip Harburg and Ira Gershwin. I mean they're all classics.

JAZZREVIEW:  There wasn't a bad song on the CD, that's for sure.  What about your repertoire?  It must be enormous.  Do you just choose songs by how you're feeling that day and tell the band what they are going to do?

ANNIE ROSS:  That's right.

JAZZREVIEW:  And they do it very well.

ANNIE ROSS:  They're fantastic.  They're really fantastic.

JAZZREVIEW:  So Jimmy, you've played with him now since back when you were….

ANNIE ROSS:  So long ago.

JAZZREVIEW:  And you've got a great pianist, Tardo Hammer.

ANNIE ROSS:  He's fabulous.

JAZZREVIEW:  How did you hook up with him?

ANNIE ROSS:  I think I met him through a friend of mine. I don't think he'd accompanied much, that's an art in itself, but boy, did he pick up quickly.

JAZZREVIEW:  And Bucky Pizzarelli who of course…

ANNIE ROSS:  He's so great.  He came up to the house…I call it a house…my apartment to rehearse. You know Bucky's been around for a long time and I can't believe this, but he said, “You just sang five songs that I don't know!”

JAZZREVIEW:   Were you on different ends of the country?

ANNIE ROSS:  No, he came to my apartment in New York.

JAZZREVIEW:   Well, I was just assuming that Bucky would probably know pretty much everything, or do you just have a great stock of lesser known tunes that you can whip out to the consternation of the old timers?

ANNIE ROSS:  Yes, they love it.

JAZZREVIEW:  I imagine they do.

ANNIE ROSS:  Well, you know things like "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"

JAZZREVIEW:  That is quite a nice tune.

ANNIE ROSS:   Oh it’s beautiful.  So it’s really whatever I feel like playing once a week.

JAZZREVIEW:  Now you're performing once a week?

ANNIE ROSS:  Yeah.

JAZZREVIEW:   But in Europe, you'll be performing every day.

ANNIE ROSS:  Every day.

JAZZREVIEW:  You're going to need a vacation when you get back from Europe.  Stop in Paris for a week.

ANNIE ROSS:  No, I have to go to London.

JAZZREVIEW:   London?  Will you be performing there?

ANNIE ROSS:  No, I'm going to see a relative who's not well.

JAZZREVIEW:  I hope things work out well. I always ask artists this question right after I get their brand new CD: Are you working on another one?

ANNIE ROSS:  I have all the materials ready to go. It’s just fixing a time.

JAZZREVIEW:  Are you planning on doing any live recordings with your band?

ANNIE ROSS:   I hadn't thought about that.

JAZZREVIEW:   I love to go to a club or a small hall to hear a band. I enjoy most bands better live.

ANNIE ROSS:  I do, too.

JAZZREVIEW:  Your new album is excellent. I think it should be getting a lot of airplay out here.  Are your touring in support of that?

ANNIE ROSS:  No.  You know I'm going to be 76.

JAZZREVIEW:  Well, you don't sound like it when you sing.

ANNIE ROSS:  No I don't, but nevertheless, I am.  I want to cut down on a lot of stuff, like cutting down on traveling. 

JAZZREVIEW:  It's nice to be at home.  Now your home is New York City?

ANNIE ROSS:  Yes it is.

JAZZREVIEW:   I was talking to Benny Golson a while back. He lives part of the time in New York and part of the time in Germany, so he's able to limit his travel that way.  Do you have a place out on the West Coast hopefully?

ANNIE ROSS:   No. I wouldn't want to live out there. I prefer New York.

JAZZREVIEW:  Well, you've got more clubs close together. I notice also that you have been receiving a number of awards.  Which one means the most to you?

ANNIE ROSS:   They all mean something, but an award from your peers is what really is lovely.  I'm not in this for rewards, you know. I don't go after a specific award. 

JAZZREVIEW:   Which one have you most recently been given?

ANNIE ROSS:  Hold on and I'll tell you.  I have to look at it.  It’s the Backstage Award--The 2000 Bistro Award called Backstage for Outstanding Achievement Major Jazz Engagement.  You know, I don't display awards when I get them.  I'll never forget going to a friend's apartment and it was covered with platinum records and I guess you have to have a place to put them, but I think it is a bit ostentatious to display awards.

JAZZREVIEW:   I guess most of the important people know that you got them. 

ANNIE ROSS:  Yeah, and they're a perfectly good singers that don't get awards, and they should.

JAZZREVIEW:  In addition to singing and acting what have you been up to?

ANNIE ROSS:  I love to cook.

JAZZREVIEW:  Cooking is the best!

ANNIE ROSS:  Yes, in fact as you called, I was reading.  I was just looking to see what I could think up for tonight's dinner. I've written a cookbook.

JAZZREVIEW:  Oh you did?  What's the name of that?

ANNIE ROSS:   “Come On In.”

JAZZREVIEW:  “Come On In” by Annie Ross.  Is it still in print?

ANNIE ROSS:  No, but someone just got it from a bookstore here in New York.

ANNIE ROSS:  Are you a musician?

JAZZREVIEW:  I play a little piano, badly.  But when I'm fooling around with it, I do enjoy it, but I don't play.

ANNIE ROSS:  Have you heard Warren Vaché’s [plays horns on Annie’s CD Let Me Sing] new album?

JAZZREVIEW:   No.

ANNIE ROSS:  Oh, it’s fantastic.  He went over to Scotland and played with the Scottish Symphony Quartet and it’s just wonderful.  I think he's the best trumpet player around.

JAZZREVIEW:  He plays more than just the trumpet doesn't he?

ANNIE ROSS:   Oh yes. He plays horns, coronet, bugle, any kind of a horn.

JAZZREVIEW:  So he has a new album out too?

ANNIE ROSS:   It's called “Don't Look Back.” 

JAZZREVIEW:   Oh, I'll go get that.

ANNIE ROSS:   Yes, you should because you'll love it.

JAZZREVIEW:   It has been a pleasure speaking with you and I look forward to seeing you in July.

ANNIE ROSS:   Absolutely.

JAZZREVIEW:   Okay, take care Annie. 

Photo by: © David Beydo

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