Biography
Born as Anne Latta Dinsmore on 17 February 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she spent her childhood near Reading, Pennsylvania, where nonstop piano playing by ear gave way to formal study of both piano and voice. At Oberlin College she joined the big band as a freshman vocalist, hosted her own program on the campus station, and performed with a student trio that opened Dave Brubeck’s landmark Brubeck At Oberlin concert. After further training at the New England Conservatory of Music she settled in New York City, where she appeared on numerous live television broadcasts as a member of the Ray Charles Singers and the Norman Luboff Choir and supplied demonstration vocals for songwriters that included Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Carole King, Neil Diamond, and Paul Simon.
Her recording debut arrived in 1959 on Roulette Records with Born To Be Blue; the subsequent transformation of popular-music tastes steered her into a thriving studio career in New York. Throughout the 1960s she supplied backing vocals on countless sessions, wrote, arranged, and produced commercials for the American Gas Association, Kent Cigarettes, Campbell’s Soup, Sheraton Hotels, and Pepsi Cola, and collaborated with artists such as Sammy Davis Jr., the Four Tops, Lesley Gore, Linda Ronstadt, Mahalia Jackson, Wilson Pickett, and Martha and the Vandellas. She assembled her own choir for recording and broadcast work and served as music director at St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue. She created the book, lyrics, and music for the children’s production The Great Grey Ghost Of Old Spook Lane, which has since been staged by many theatrical ensembles.
With her husband, tenor saxophonist Bob Kindred, she conceived Bending Towards The Light … A Jazz Nativity, a jazz retelling of the Christmas story that is mounted annually in New York and elsewhere across the United States and has featured guests including Brubeck, Al Grey, Lionel Hampton, Tito Puente, and Clark Terry. The couple also directs the non-profit Kindred Spirit Foundation. From the early 1990s onward Phillips has served on the adjunct faculty of New York University’s Jazz and Contemporary Music Department, where she arranges for and conducts the NYU Jazz Choir.
Her return to recording under her own name in 2000 showcased original songs that underscored her affinity for the enduring virtues of American popular song; every selection stands as a gem suited to the repertoires of singers devoted to music of lasting quality. She has arranged and produced sessions for Kindred, among them That Kindred Spirit and Hidden Treasures. A fluid, melodious voice paired with discerning lyric interpretation places Phillips among the foremost interpreters of popular song of her generation.
Her recording debut arrived in 1959 on Roulette Records with Born To Be Blue; the subsequent transformation of popular-music tastes steered her into a thriving studio career in New York. Throughout the 1960s she supplied backing vocals on countless sessions, wrote, arranged, and produced commercials for the American Gas Association, Kent Cigarettes, Campbell’s Soup, Sheraton Hotels, and Pepsi Cola, and collaborated with artists such as Sammy Davis Jr., the Four Tops, Lesley Gore, Linda Ronstadt, Mahalia Jackson, Wilson Pickett, and Martha and the Vandellas. She assembled her own choir for recording and broadcast work and served as music director at St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue. She created the book, lyrics, and music for the children’s production The Great Grey Ghost Of Old Spook Lane, which has since been staged by many theatrical ensembles.
With her husband, tenor saxophonist Bob Kindred, she conceived Bending Towards The Light … A Jazz Nativity, a jazz retelling of the Christmas story that is mounted annually in New York and elsewhere across the United States and has featured guests including Brubeck, Al Grey, Lionel Hampton, Tito Puente, and Clark Terry. The couple also directs the non-profit Kindred Spirit Foundation. From the early 1990s onward Phillips has served on the adjunct faculty of New York University’s Jazz and Contemporary Music Department, where she arranges for and conducts the NYU Jazz Choir.
Her return to recording under her own name in 2000 showcased original songs that underscored her affinity for the enduring virtues of American popular song; every selection stands as a gem suited to the repertoires of singers devoted to music of lasting quality. She has arranged and produced sessions for Kindred, among them That Kindred Spirit and Hidden Treasures. A fluid, melodious voice paired with discerning lyric interpretation places Phillips among the foremost interpreters of popular song of her generation.
Albums
Live
