Search - Annie Ross, Zoot Sims :: Singer Swinger Gasser

Not her usual music

Steven C. Berry | Edmonds WA | 01/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love this album. Try it out if and when it is back in print. Annie Ross has the most interesting voice -- not a perfect voice, but she knew how to use it. There's no scat and her song choices are stellar. This disc swings. My favorites include "You're Nearer" and "I Don't Want to Cry Anymore". Her band was top-notch. Zoot Simms played his tenor sax as if he was singing, too. The band swung and Annie's timing was impeccable. She's wicked-funny singing "Everything I've Got.""

Vocalese rendered slow

groucho | Chapel Hill, NC, USA | 01/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is actually a duet album with saxophonist Zoot Sims. Ross eschewed vibrato like Anita O'Day and latter-day Shirley Horn and its great hearing her wring something from such chestnuts as "You're Nearer". This is quite different from the rapid-fire vocalese she did with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks in the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross albums, but just as essential."

Twisted chanteuse

Van Halen Kurtz | Twin Oaks | 05/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"And dig that cover photo! What a fashionable lady!



Ross' 3rd, and final, solo album [1959] is a diamond telescope shot into the now icono-mythic jazz cabaret galaxy. Evoked, by tipsy seance, in a million noirish Hollywood scenes, this here is the real jones. Perfect singing and sax solos - totally crepuscular. Intimate, stylish and (seemingly) carefree, here's the swinging serendipity, sans cliche. All gin, baby, no vermouth.



More smouldering than gassing, though - which be fine by me."