A mockingbird sang on
Citrus Place
A
mockingbird sang near Citrus Place,
which was the next best thing to a nightingale in Berkeley Square,
and Annie Ross, dressed California-style in a gray sweat suit and handmade
earrings, got a certain little twinkle in her eye.
"Been up all night with that one. Sounds like he's auditioning or
something," she said. She peered cautiously into the relentless sunshine
and spotted the bird on top of a phone pole. She sighed.
"I like L.A. a little better now that they've found my luggage," she went
on. That explained the sweat suit, not really Ross' style since she's been
living in London; Her luggage, containing her wardrobe and the music she'd
brought for an American tour, had been missing for four days: "My life was
in those bags!"
But with the help of pianist Nat Pierce, she tracked down the suitcases,
which are winging their way here from New York, Pierce, with bassist Monte
Budwig and drummer Dick Berk, is accompanying her during her engagement
through tonight at the Vine Street Bar & Grill, the first club date she's
played on the coast since the 1960s, when she was Ross of Lambert,
Hendricks and Ross.
"I've
been living in London for the last 17 years, and
I haven't really been singing that much, certainly not jazz. I did
‘Pirates of Penzance' for a year and a half at the Theater Royal in Drury
Lane. I played the nursemaid, called Ruth.
"But that's not really singing jazz. I do miss jazz. But also I like to do
a whole lot of other things. Like, I like to do a lot of acting, which
they don't know about here.
"I did Superman the movie with Richie Pryor. I played the evil sister of
Robert Vaughan. But people didn't recognize me nor did they connect THE
Annie Ross with the Annie Ross that was on the screen,.
"And then I did Arthur Miller's 'A View From the Bridge'
at the Old Vie. I played the wife.
"I was asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Company for a year, but I was
just about to open in New York, and there was no way I could get out of my
contract, so I couldn't do that.
"I had no way of breaking in an act. I came cold from finishing on a
Saturday night in October at the Old Vie, straight to Michael's Pub and
opening on a Tuesday.
This
was her American re-debut.
"Basically what I do now is a little bit of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross,
things of my own (if she never did anything else, Ross, 54, would! go down
in jazz history as the author of “Twisted”), numbers with a kind of comedy
thing to them. I do 'Goin' to Chicago,' and 'Jumpin' at the Woodside,' and
'Saturday Night Fish Fry' and “Tea for Two' and “I’ll See You Again,' and
Mozart: 'Blue Rondo a la Turk."
The twinkle comes into her eyes, which also have a kind of Simone Signoret
air, without the dark circles. Not many realize that the Brubeck warhorse
is based on a theme by Mozart. But Annie does. She's hip.
Born in Surrey, England, but raised in Los Angeles and was a graduate of
Hawthorne Elementary School in Beverly Hills, Ross is the niece of the
late Ella Logan and played Judy Garland's sister in "Presenting Lily Mars"
back in 1942.
She was a band singer in Europe and worked briefly with Lionel Hampton
before joining Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks for the fateful New York
session that produced "Sing Along With Basie" for ABC-Paramount under the
direction of renowned producer Creed Taylor.
"I
was at a friend's house in New
York who had a small record company and he got a call
from Davey, and he came over with Jon to demonstrate to my friend the idea
they had for the Basie arrangements. And I happened to be there and I
thought it was great and I'd already done 'Twisted,' so it was my kind of
thing.
"My friend suggested Creed Taylor and they got a record date. They had
something like six women and six men, session singers, who were going to
do four-tracks. They rang me up and said, would I like to come down and
coach the women in the Basie feel, which, you know, it's impossible.
"I went down anyway and they recorded two or three tracks and it sounded
terrible. It didn't swing — they hit all the notes, but that wasn't it.
"Well, the time hadn't been used up yet, but the money was turning over.
And Creed Taylor said 'Well, can you think of anything? I mean, we've got
nothing! What are we going to do?' And Dave suggested the multitracking.
"Well, it worked. We were delighted and Creed was delighted, and that was
how it all started."
It lasted until 1962. They were socko at the Playboy Festival and boffo at
the Monterey Festival and every music lover's home in the nation had at
least one Lambert, Hendricks & Ross LP around somewhere.
But in 1962, Annie decided to leave the act, and after that it was never
the same.
"Touring was very difficult for a female at that time. Because guys, as
much as they love you, they like to get out on their own. They like to go
and pick up a chick and have a drink and blah, blah, blah. They get tired
of kind of escorting you. And I wound up just being in my hotel room
watching television and thinking (here she sang a few notes, perfectly in
tune, too), 'Is that all there is?'
"I
finally decided I wanted to go
back to London, and when we went there to appear, I said
'I'm gonna stay.' And they didn't believe me. And I said 'I am here, I'm
staying.'
And she did. Seventeen years later, she is still hanging in there.
"I'm gonna stay in jazz and I'm gonna stay in New York City. I hope maybe
an album is the next step. I had a talk with Sweets (Harry Edison) before
he left for New York, and we're trying to formulate a thing, because I'd
love to do something with James Moody and Sweets and myself.
"The other day I was walking along Madison Avenue and I passed a police
station and a black policeman came out off duty and he's walking up the
street singing 'Moody's Mood for Love.' He did the female chorus, the
whole thing, walking along Madison Avenue. Out of sight! I was thrilled.”
Outside on Citrus Place, the mockingbird couldn’t stop singing either.
Written for the Los Angeles Herald
Examiner of June 29, 1985
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