Annie Ross (born Annabelle Allan Short; July 25, 1930 – July 21, 2020) was a British-born American singer and actress. She is best known as a member of the important jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. She helped create the vocalese style of jazz singing, which is described by critic Dave Gelly as "a dreamy and alert way that represents 1950s hip culture." In 2010, she was honored as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Kenneth Tynan, who wrote liner notes for Ross, described her as "a fallen angel who moves us but then shows she does not need our sympathy with a small smile."

Early life

Ross was born in Surrey, England, to Scottish vaudevillians John "Jack" Short and Mary Dalziel Short (née Allan). Her brother was Scottish entertainer and theatre producer Jimmy Logan. She first appeared on stage at age three. At age four, she traveled to New York by ship with her family. She later remembered that they "got the cheapest ticket, which was right in the bowels of the ship."

Soon after arriving in New York, she won a small contract with MGM through a children's radio contest hosted by Paul Whiteman. She then moved to Los Angeles with her aunt, Scottish-American singer and actress Ella Logan, while her mother, father, and brother returned to Scotland. She did not see her parents again until fourteen years later. At age seven, she sang "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" in Our Gang Follies of 1938 and played Judy Garland's character's sister in Presenting Lily Mars (1943).

At age 14, she wrote the song "Let's Fly," which won a songwriting contest and was recorded by Johnny Mercer and the Pied Pipers.

After finishing 10th grade, she left school, changed her name to Annie Ross, and traveled to Europe, where she began her singing career. She changed her surname to Ross during a plane trip to Prestwick. In a 2011 interview, she explained that her aunt claimed she had an Irish grandmother named Ross, which is where the surname came from.

Career

In 1952, Ross met Bob Weinstock, the owner of Prestige Records. He asked her to write lyrics for a jazz solo in a way similar to King Pleasure, a method later called vocalese. The next day, she gave him a song called "Twisted," which was based on a 1949 saxophone piece by Wardell Gray. This song, first released in 1952 and later included on the album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings, became popular underground and earned Ross the New Star award from Down Beat magazine.

In February 1956, the British music magazine NME reported that Ross's version of the song "I Want You to Be My Baby" was banned by the BBC because of the lyric "Come upstairs and have some loving."

Between 1957 and 1962, Ross recorded seven albums with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Their first album, Sing a Song of Basie (1957), was originally planned to be performed by a group of singers hired by Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert, with Ross serving as a vocal consultant. However, the group decided to record the music themselves and add extra vocals later. The first two tracks were recorded but not satisfactory, so they abandoned the overdubbing plan. The resulting album was successful, and the trio became internationally famous. Over the next five years, they toured globally and recorded albums such as The Hottest New Group in Jazz (1959), Sing Ellington (1960), High Flying (1962), and The Real Ambassadors (1962), which was written by Dave Brubeck and featured Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae.

Ross left the group in 1962. In 1964, she opened a nightclub in London called Annie's Room, which hosted performers such as Joe Williams, Nina Simone, Stuff Smith, Blossom Dearie, Anita O'Day, Jon Hendricks, and Erroll Garner.

In her adult film career, Ross appeared in movies such as Straight On till Morning (1972), Alfie Darling (1976), Funny Money (1983), Superman III (1983), Throw Momma from the Train (1987), Witchery (1988), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Short Cuts (1993), and Blue Sky (1994). She also had small roles in Basket Case 2 (1990), Basket Case 3: The Progeny (1991), and The Player (1992). She starred in the Scottish Television series Charles Endell Esquire (1979).

Ross provided the speaking voice for Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973) and the singing voice for Ingrid Thulin in Salon Kitty (1976). On stage, she performed in productions such as Cranks (1955), The Threepenny Opera (1972), The Seven Deadly Sins (1973) at the Royal Opera House, Kennedy's Children (1975) at Arts Theatre, Side by Side by Sondheim, and the Joe Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance (1982).

Personal life

In 1949, Ross had a short relationship with drummer Kenny Clarke. This relationship resulted in a son, Kenny Clarke Jr. (1950–2018), who was raised by Clarke's brother and his wife. During her time with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, she became dependent on heroin and in the late 1950s had a relationship with comedian Lenny Bruce, who also struggled with drug problems. By 1960, Carol Sloane took her place on tour. After a performance by the trio in London in May 1962, she stayed in London to work to overcome her drug addiction. In 1963, she married actor Sean Lynch; they divorced in 1975, and he died in a car crash shortly after. By that time, she had also lost her home and declared bankruptcy.

She became a United States citizen in 2001. In her later years, she had a long-term relationship with Dave Usher, a businessman and co-founder of Dee Gee Records (along with Dizzy Gillespie), a label for which Ross had recorded in 1952. Ross died in New York City on July 21, 2020, from emphysema and heart disease, four days before her 90th birthday.

Awards and portrayals

Ross was awarded the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame (2009), the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters' Award (2010), and the MAC Award for Lifetime Achievement (2011).

In July 2006, a one-woman play titled TWISTED: The Annie Ross Story, written by Brian McGeachan, first performed at The Space Theatre in London. Verity Quade played the role of Ross. The play later moved to the Brockley Jack Theatre in London the same year, with Betsy Pennington portraying Ross.

A documentary about Ross’s life, titled No One But Me, first showed at the Glasgow Film Festival in 2012.

Discography

• New Sounds from France with Jack Dieval, James Moody (Prestige, 1950)
• Annie by Candlelight with Tony Crombie (Pye, Nixa, 1956)
• Cranks with John Cranko, John Addison (His Master's Voice, 1956)
• Gypsy with Buddy Bregman (World Pacific, 1959)
• A Gasser! with Zoot Sims (World Pacific, 1959)
• Annie Ross Sings a Song with Mulligan! with Gerry Mulligan (World Pacific, 1959)
• Sings a Handful of Songs (Ember, 1963)
• Loguerhythms: Songs from the Establishment with Tony Kinsey (Transatlantic, 1963)
• Portrait of Annie Ross (Pye, 1965)
• Recorded at the Tenth German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt with Pony Poindexter (SABA, 1966)
• Fill My Heart with Song (Decca, 1968)
• Singin' 'n' Swingin with Dorothy Dunn, Shelby Davis (Savoy, 1969)
• You and Me Baby (Decca, 1971)
• In Hoagland with Hoagy Carmichael, Georgie Fame (Bald Eagle, 1981)
• Like Someone in Love (Bulldog, 1983)
• Music Is Forever (DRG, 1996)
• Live in London (Harkit, 2003)
• To Lady with Love (Red Anchor, 2014)

With Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks

• Sing a Song of Basie (ABC-Paramount, 1958)
• The Swingers! with Zoot Sims (World Pacific, 1959)
• Sing Along with Basie with Count Basie, Joe Williams (Roulette, 1959)
• The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia, 1959)
• Sing Ellington with Ike Isaacs (Columbia, 1960)
• High Flying with Ike Isaacs (Columbia, 1961)
• The Real Ambassadors with Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Carmen McRae (Columbia Masterworks, 1962)
• Everybody's Boppin (Columbia, 1989) compilation