Annie Ross

Annie Ross, whose agile phrasing and luminous timbre placed her among jazz's foremost singers during her prime years in the 1950s and 1960s, forged an additional path as a performer in film and television. From her earliest years she appeared before audiences, landing the part of Judy Garland's sibling in the 1943 musical Presenting Lily Mars while still in her early teens. In 1952 she supplied words to her own breakthrough recording, the pioneering “Twisted,” and three years later joined Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks to establish the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's leading jazz vocal ensembles, the group completed seven albums before 1962, the last of which, The Real Ambassadors, originated as a Dave and Iola Brubeck project and also included Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae. After maintaining a solo nightclub presence for several more seasons, Ross secured increasing screen work, headlining two brief television series in the late 1970s and later appearing in Superman III (1983), Pump Up the Volume (1990), and Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), where she performed vocally as well. She remained a steady presence on cabaret stages well into the following century, issuing her last recording, the Bucky and John Pizzarelli-accompanied To Lady with Love, in 2014.

Born Annabelle Macauley Allan Short on July 25, 1930, in Mitcham, South London, she was the daughter of Scottish variety performers Jack and Mary Dalziel Short. At three she traveled with her parents and brother, theater polymath Jimmy Logan, to New York, where she won a children's radio competition organized by Paul Whiteman that carried an MGM contract. Her aunt, singer/actress Ella Logan, subsequently took the young Annie to Los Angeles while the rest of the family returned to Britain.

Ross made her screen debut in late 1937 with a part in the comedy short Our Gang Follies of 1938. She again portrayed a vocalist in the 1940 musical fairy-tale short Cinderella's Feller before securing the role of Judy Garland's younger sister in the 1943 feature Presenting Lily Mars, which also showcased Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby with their orchestras. She later studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York, taking the stage name Annie Ross upon returning to London. Soon afterward she immersed herself in the Parisian jazz community, recording alongside American expatriates such as James Moody, Coleman Hawkins, and Kenny Clarke, the last of whom fathered her only child, Kenny Clarke, Jr., born in 1950.

In 1952 Ross moved back to New York and cut her first album, Singin' and Swingin', alongside members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. That same year, at the urging of Prestige Records founder Bob Weinstock, she wrote lyrics to saxophonist Wardell Gray's 1949 piece “Twisted” and recorded it with King Pleasure. Although the track waited six years for album release, it became a modest hit and a landmark of vocalese, earning Ross Down Beat magazine's New Star award.

During part of 1953 she toured Europe with one of Lionel Hampton's leading ensembles, featuring Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, and Gigi Gryce. She stayed primarily in London for several years, releasing Annie by Candlelight on Pye and Cranks on HMV before heading to New York for a club engagement in 1957.

There she participated in a vocal session with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks, who were adapting Count Basie solos for voices. Recognizing shared sensibilities, they invited Ross to complete the trio they named Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Their debut album, 1957's Sing a Song of Basie, established a model of densely layered, rapid vocal interplay and brought quick acclaim, followed by extensive international touring. Outside the group Ross found time to record the 1958 solo album Annie Ross Sings a Song with Mulligan!, which featured Gerry Mulligan on saxophone and Chet Baker on trumpet. The year 1959 yielded the solo sets A Gasser! (with Zoot Sims) and Gypsy (with Buddy Bregman & Orchestra), along with the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross releases The Swingers! (with Sims), Sing Along with Basie (with Count Basie), and their Columbia debut, The Hottest New Group in Jazz. A heroin habit she shared with then-partner Lenny Bruce began to affect her, yet she persisted in working. The trio recorded two further Columbia albums, 1960's Sing Ellington and 1961's High Flying, with bassist Ike Isaacs, before contributing to the 1962 project The Real Ambassadors, sharing credit with Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, and Carmen McRae. Ross then departed; the remaining members briefly continued as Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan with Yolande Bavan.

Returning to London, Ross overcame her addiction, launched her own club, Annie's Room, and married English actor Sean Lynch in 1963, the same year she issued Sings a Handful of Songs and Loguerhythms: Songs from the Establishment, the latter with the Tony Kinsey Quartet. Pye put out Portrait of Annie Ross in 1965, and a 1966 performance with Pony Poindexter, Recorded at the Tenth German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt, appeared the next year. Decca released the Ross album Fill My Heart with Song in 1967.

Meanwhile she made guest appearances on series such as The Saint and No Hiding Place and played a jazz singer in the 1969 television film The Stiffkey Scandals of 1932. The 1971 Decca release You and Me Baby proved her final record of the decade. In 1972 she appeared in the thriller Straight on Till Morning and onstage in a Vanessa Redgrave production of The Threepenny Opera. The following year she supplied the singing voice for Britt Ekland in the horror film The Wicker Man, and in 1974 Columbia issued The Best of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

As demand for her singing declined, Ross faced financial hardship; by the close of 1975 she had ended her marriage to Lynch, filed for bankruptcy, and lost her residence. She redirected attention toward acting, gaining occasional television parts before taking a lead role in the 1978 series Send in the Girls. Another short-lived show, Charles Endell, Esq, followed in 1979. Her first recording in ten years, In Hoagland 1981, paired her with Hoagy Carmichael and Georgie Fame. In 1982 she returned to the stage in a Joseph Papp production of The Pirates of Penzance at Drury Lane alongside Tim Curry and Peter Noone. A notable role in Superman III (1983) revived her film prospects and prompted a move to Los Angeles in 1985. Subsequent Hollywood credits included the 1987 comedy Throw Momma from the Train, the horror sequels Basket Case 2 and 3, Pump Up the Volume (1990), and two Robert Altman features: The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993). Portraying jazz singer Tess Trainer in the latter, she contributed several tracks to its soundtrack. In 1996 she resurfaced with the album Music Is Forever, featuring pianist Tommy Flanagan and including a version of “Twisted.” Her final screen acting role came that year in the television movie The Ring of Truth.

Entering her seventies, Ross became a U.S. citizen in 2001 and returned to the studio in August 2005 for Let Me Sing on Consolidated Artists Productions. Harkit Records followed in 2006 with a complete edition of 1965 Annie's Room performances titled Live in London. Her stature undiminished, the National Endowment for the Arts designated her a Jazz Master in 2010, and the documentary No One But Me appeared in 2012. Captured in a single August 2013 session with guitarists Bucky and John Pizzarelli, her last album, the Billie Holiday tribute To Lady with Love, was issued on the Red Anchor label in 2014. She continued performing regularly at Manhattan's Metropolitan Room until its 2017 closure. Annie Ross died at her Manhattan residence on July 21, 2020, four days before her ninetieth birthday.