With the Berlin All Stars Live (Remastered) Annie Ross

• 1 Saturday Night Fishfry 04:35
• 2 All Blues 11:40
• 3 Home Cookin' 04:54
• 4 Jumpin' at the Woodside 06:23
• 5 Moody's Mood for Love 03:39
• 6 Goin' to Chicago 04:01
• 7 Twisted 08:18
• Total Runtime 43:30

Info for With the Berlin All Stars Live (Remastered)

Lauded for her 1952 underground hit ‘Twisted’, the Englander Annie Ross achieved enduring fame when she joined up to form the iconic vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Pony Poindexter was one of the top-flight saxophonists of his era, recording with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, and Eric Dolphy. The back-up band, the Berlin All-Stars, consists of the cream of the American ex-patriot crop, as well as two top European players. Annie and Pony are rockin’ as they sing the crazy story of Louis Jordan’s Saturday Night Fish Fry. Pony sings Oscar Brown’s poignant lyrics to All Blues, followed by a series of outstanding solos. Jon Hendrick’s scrumptious lyrics on Horace Silver’s Home Cooking has Annie taking the melody as well as practicing some vocalise. Pony scats a solo that should make you hungry for more. Annie and Pony sing the Basie classic Jumpin’ at the Woodside in unison, with stand-out solos from Carmell Jones and Leo Wright. The 1952 classic Moody’s Mood for Love became a part of jazz history when Eddie Jefferson put words to James Moody’s 1949 sax solo on I’m in the Mood for Love. Miss Ross takes on this beautiful tongue-twister with aplomb. Annie and Pony stroll through the blues on Basie’s Goin’ to Chicago, as Saxophonist Wardell Gray’s Twisted brings the session to an end. Ross’s lyrics to Gray’s solo have become a sharp-witted tongue-in-cheek jazz classic. Annie, Pony, and the gang have serious fun on some of the hippest vocal jazz standards. If you dig jazz singing and vocalese, it’s an album ya gotta have.

Annie Ross, vocals
Pony Poindexter, alto and soprano saxophone, vocals
Fritz Pauer, piano
Leo Wright, flute, alto saxophone
André Condouant, guitar
Carmell Jones, trumpet
Jimmy Woode, bass
Joe Nay, drums

Digitally remastered

Annie Ross
As part of the vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Annie Ross was one of the early practitioners of a singing style known as "vocalese," which involves the setting of original lyrics to an instrumental jazz solo. She has been equally at home in the acting field, appearing in numerous films.

Ross was born in England, but raised in Los Angeles. She landed a role in the Our Gang film series at the age of eight, singing a musical number on the show. Returning to Europe, she began her singing career, working with musicians such as James Moody, Kenny Clarke, and Coleman Hawkins.

Ross returned to the United States in 1952, settling in New York City, and soon recorded Singin' and Swingin' with members of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Later that year she recorded an album with vocalist King Pleasure, including the classic example of vocalese, "Twisted," which featured her treatment of saxophonist Wardell Gray's solo. It is perhaps her most famous song and has been recorded by Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, and many others.

In 1953, Ross toured Europe with Lionel Hampton's band, which included Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, and Quincy Jones. After several years in Europe, she returned to the States where she teamed up with vocalists Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks on an album of Count Basie solos transposed for vocals. That was the beginning of the group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.

Between 1957 and 1962, the group recorded seven albums, including the one that put them in the spotlight: Sing A Song Of Basie (1957). They toured all over the world and also appear in Dave Brubeck's musical theater piece The Real Ambassadors (1961). Ross left the group in 1962 and two years later she opened her own London nightclub called Annie's Room; a compilation of her 1965 performances there was released on Live in London (2006).

Ross also is an accomplished actress and has appeared in a number of films, such as Superman III (1983), Throw Mama from the Train (1987), Pump Up the Volume (1990), and Blue Sky (1994). Her most notable film role was as the jazz singer Tess Trainer in Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), in which she also sang. On stage, Ross appeared in Cranks (1955) in both London and New York, The Threepenny Opera (1972) with Vanessa Redgrave, and in the Joe Papp production of The Pirates Of Penzance (1982) with Tim Curry.

Ross resides in New York City where she still performs regularly.

This album contains no booklet.