Lambert, Hendricks & Ross

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross stood as the foremost jazz vocal ensemble ever, reshaping vocal performance in the late 1950s and early 1960s through a deliberate shift away from pop’s growing commercial leanings toward the rigorous craft of vocal jazz. They adapted bop chord structures to lively vocal arrangements, converting numerous instrumental jazz pieces into original vocal works that incorporated scat passages and exchanged phrases exactly as instrumental soloists did. Dave Lambert crafted intricate, interlocking vocal parts for the three singers that remained loosely connected yet meshed effectively. Jon Hendricks supplied sharp, humorous words to pieces such as “Summertime,” “Moanin’,” and “Twisted,” while Annie Ross emerged as one of the most powerful and agile female singers in jazz vocal history. The trio opened doors for later ensembles like Manhattan Transfer and earned admiration from both singers and jazz instrumentalists.

Their formation began during informal gatherings at Lambert’s apartment. A trailblazing arranger and bop singer, Lambert had performed with Gene Krupa and Buddy Stewart, yet also drew notoriety for directing a vocal ensemble on the ill-fated 1953 Clef session “Charlie Parker with Voices.” That year he encountered Jon Hendricks, whose own approach to vocals included adding lyrics. Their initial recording presented a thorough reworking of “Four Brothers,” with Hendricks’s words set to exact reproductions of the solos originally played by Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Stan Getz, and Woody Herman. Additional sides followed without success until they met solo singer Annie Ross, which proved decisive.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross released their debut album, Sing a Song of Basie, in 1957. Although they had planned to engage a full vocal choir, studio singers proved inadequate, prompting the trio to overdub their own voices instead. The outcome delivered striking vocal renditions of complete Basie solos from tracks including “One O’Clock Jump,” “Down for Double,” and “Avenue C,” accompanied by Hendricks’s lyrics. The following year’s Sing Along with Basie placed the bandleader and his orchestra in an accompanying role.

Recognizing that overdubbing risked becoming a novelty, the group enlisted a standard rhythm section and shifted to live performance and recording in that format. Their initial studio effort under this approach, 1959’s The Swingers!, marked a clear advance in execution and led to a Columbia contract later that year. Over the next two years the trio completed three albums for the label, one of them honoring Duke Ellington.

Each member had also undertaken individual projects while the trio remained active. Exhaustion from relentless touring prompted Ross’s departure in 1962. Lambert and Hendricks brought in Yolande Bavan as her replacement and moved to RCA. Yet no one could match Ross’s solo ability, and the three albums issued by Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan from 1962 to 1964 fell short of earlier standards. The ensemble disbanded in 1964; Lambert’s death in a car accident two years afterward ended any prospect of reuniting. Hendricks and Ross both sustained performing and recording careers afterward, with Ross additionally appearing in theater and film.