Who the Heck are They ? (Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in general)

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in general
Date:	05/02/02 (756 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cool, Different

Disadvantages: They broke up in 1962, Dave Lambert died in 1966, Not all of their albums are available

Those of you who 'know' me will know that I have what many consider to be some 'strange' tastes in music, as illustrated in my 'Top Ten' singles and albums.

Well, let me take you back to 1959 or thereabouts - the days when there was only one TV channel received in our house, (only 'black & white' available then, I should add, but ITV had just started broadcasting in South Wales), and I was watching the only program I thought worth watching on a Saturday night - "Juke Box Jury".

This program featured quite a variety of new singles featured, where a selection of 'guests' had to vote a single as a 'hit' or a 'miss'. Anyway, very occasionally, a record would be featured that was VERY unusual and it could even be the only time that you would hear it. Obviously most were the 'Pop' trash of the day, or brilliant Rock 'n Roll, but the occasional Jazz or 'comedy' record would also appear (ever heard "Dinner with Drac" by John Zachkerl ? If not, believe me - you probably won't want to ...).

One Saturday they played this recording by the jazz singer Annie Ross, called "Jackie". I only heard it just that once, but even now, tantalising pieces of it still stick in my mind these 43 years' later:

"I sat. One Night. Right in the middle of a glass of Coca Cola ....... "

I trawled through the record shops in Barry and Cardiff but no one could find it. Indeed, I have not heard that piece ever since. It must have been a specialist Jazz record and possibly only available from specialist Jazz record shops in London and the album that it was from wasn't issued in the UK. Even 'City Radio', the specialists in Cardiff couldn't help me.

Then about 6 months later, I read an enthusiastic review of an album in the Melody Maker, called "Lambert Hendricks & Ross - The Hottest New Group in J
azz".

My interest in Jazz was just getting into its stride at the time and, since there was little available to listen to on the radio, I had recently joined a postal Jazz Record Lending Library.

You see the world in 1959 would appear very alien to you young 'uns today. Singles were mostly on 10 inch 78 rpm shellac that broke easily. Vinyl 45 rpm singles were just begining to make their appearance and cost the equivalent of 33 pence each. No local authority libraries had albums to loan.

Vinyl albums cost then a fraction under £2 each and my pocket money at the time would have meant my being able to afford just about one album every 6 weeks or so. There were also 45rpm vinyl Extended Play records (about twice the length of a single) at about twice the price, and these were the only economical way of an impecunious teenager to build up a variety of jazz records. My summer job in 1958 at Barry Island selling Candy Floss and Ice Cream at 'The Mighty Atom' Cafe on the promenade paid the princely sum of 10 shillings (50 pence) a day. Indeed, I was delighted to 'move up' to the Fortes' Ice Cream parlor in the summer of 1959 to see my daily wedge increase to a whole 16 shillings (80 pence)!!!. For further comparison, the basic wage of a bus driver was about £12 a week and £1,000 a year was considered an excellent salary - oh and a new Mini cost £427!!!. So I think that you can get the general economic picture.

So as you see, there was a certainly distinct lack of affluence about generally, in the World of Wales (and the rest of the UK) in 1959.

Anyway there I go booling on about nowt to do with the opinion that I am supposed to be writing.....

So, I sent off for this album on a 2 week loan (5 shillings [25 pence] plus postage). I soon discovered that the "Ross" featured was the very same Annie Ross, and I thought then (and still think now) that she is a totally under
-rated BRITISH female Jazz singer (but there is a possible reason for this, which is referred to below).

I thought the album brilliant. I taped it on my reel-to reel tape recorder. I won't go into the complexities of that machine. Suffice to say that tape recorders which played cassettes weren't even thought of then and this was VERY Low-Fi.

Since then I reckon that I have heard everything that this group recorded in their period together (1955 - 1962).

Those of you not familiar with their work could possibly be more familiar with the Group that has performed a lot of LHR material – "Manhattan Transfer". I saw them 'live' once. They were good but not greeeaaat !! (and they pay little homage to their 'inspiration').

The Music – Vocalese
The general term used to describe the music of Lambert Hendricks & Ross (LHR) is 'Vocalese'. This is where a piece of jazz music is taken and lyrics written to fit into the intricate melody line, riffs and chorus. Ideally, the lyrics should have some relevance with the title of the music, so it requires quite an expert lyricist/poet and a versatile singer or group of singers capable of twisting their voices around the music.

For those of you not familiar with the 'essence' of Jazz performance, it generally hinges around a piece of music which is written; then the chord sequence is used in constructing improvised solos and exchanges between the instruments.

It is suggested that the first Vocalese was composed in the 1920's, but as far as I am aware there are no recordings available now of those first 'experiments'. Some of the essence of that music can be heard with the recordings of Louis Jordan from the 1940's (revived in the stage show "Five Guys Named Mo") and a guy called ‘King Pleasure’ from the early 1950’s.

A major writer of this type of mus
ic is Jon Hendricks. Another is a guy called Oscar Brown Junior. Don't confuse Vocalese with that other characteristic of jazz singing - 'scat singing', popularised by the likes of the greats Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Laine, where vocal noises are made to interpret the music. This idea was followed on by Rock 'n Roll vocal groups in the 1950's and later ("Hey Babra Ribba" etc.). There have even been suggestions that 'Rap' is the current development of 'Vocalese' but I won't get involved in that debate.

"LHR"
The group members were Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. Dave Lambert died in a road accident in 1966; he had been a singer with a number of jazz groups before joining LHR.

Jon Hendricks is still alive, now in his 80's (and recently performed at the Jazz Cafe in London). He wrote music for Louis Jordan, and also sang with a variety of bands. He also went on to write Georgie Fame's hit "Yeah Yeah".

Annie Ross was born in Scotland and is now in her 70's. Apparently she still does the occasional gig with Jon Hendricks in Las Vegas. I saw her perform at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh in the early 1980's, and she has appeared as an actress (e.g. in a crime drama series with Ricky Fulton and Ian Cuthbertson called "I'm Back!", which was very popular in the 1970's). As indicated above, she is a technically accomplished singer with a wide vocal range (five-octave, if I recall correctly in her more active days).

In the 1950's she sang with a number of jazz bands in the States, including the Lionel Hampton Band. Now, Hampton was a great Vibraphone player ... THAT is an instrument that seem to have 'died the death' and is rarely heard these days.

LHR came about after an idea by Dave Lambert. In 1955, he assembled a group of singers to record the vocal arrangements he and Jon Hendricks had
penned for some tunes from the great Count Basie Band which then was approaching its best. Apparently, it was a disaster. initially sounding “like a church choir”, but they cut down the number of singers to three and used multi-tracking to give the effect that they were after. Thus there came the album "Sing a Song of Basie". This has recently been re-issued on CD and I have (naturally) bought it. I could only afford an EP from the album in the late 1950's and, sadly, that (like many parts of me) is now very worn .....

Albums Currently Available
There are just two at present, in the UK - "Lambert Hendricks & Ross – The Hottest New Group in Jazz" and "Sing A Song of Basie "

"Lambert Hendricks & Ross - The Hottest New Group in Jazz"
When I saw this in the HMV store in Princes Street about a year ago, I just grabbed it and paid the required £10.99 without question. Little did I realise that what I had bought wasn't just the album which I had 'borrowed' from the Jazz Record Library in 1959, but was a 2 CD set. It combined not just that album but two which I reckon had not been available in the UK up to then ("Lambert Hendricks & Ross sing Ellington" and "Flying High with LHR"). There are also 7 tracks which are described as either 'previously unreleased' or "additional track not on original LP". So, for a VERY reasonable price, you get a veritable feast of music.

With the marvels of modern technology – through the www.amazon.com (USA) site - you can actually hear a few extracts of this fine music for free. Not perhaps all of what I consider to be “the best”, but I can definitely recommend your listening to "Twisted". This is perhaps the best-known of Annie Ross's material.

These are the words written to an improvised piece by the Tenor Saxophone player Wardell Gray. The
lyric is so hip, and (to my ‘twisted’ mind) so relevant :

“My Analyst told Me
That I was right outa my head
The way he described it
You'd think I was better dead
Than live !
I didn't listen to his jive
I knew all along - he was all wrong
And I knew that he thought
I was crazy but I'm not, Oh No
(Oh No ?)
Oh No !!

They say as a child I was a little bit wild
But I knew what was happening
I was a GEN-IUS ....."

I will suggest that you listen to the large extract on the amazon.com Website, just bring up the page, download ‘RealPlayer’ and enjoy extracts of the three albums that are issued in the USA.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002 ADR/qid=1012857261/sr=1-1/ref=sr _1_11_1/102-0920926-9808148

There are only 5 numbers that can be heard directly from this double CD:

1. Charleston Alley
2. Moanin'
3. Twisted
4. Bijou
5. Cloudburst

A pity, since the next on the list ("Centrepiece") is one of my absolute favourites (it makes me think of Heather - who is my "Centrepiece").

However, within the past month, an album called "Everybody's Boppin'" has been re-released in the USA. It is featured on the amazon.com site, with extracts of all tracks. Most of them are also on the Double Album, including "Centrepiece", so you can now hear this (".... cos' nothing's any good without you - Baby you're my Centrepiece ....").

I think that you will get the essence of the Group and if you want a further example of their lyrics, can I suggest that you read the opinion and the comments that I wrote on the Ken Burns "Jazz" series on BBC2 where I quote the words from the Charlie Parker piece "Now's the Time" (just below this opinion on my 'front page' and for which the DVD's are just
now available in the UK and has set me out searching for a DVD player).

Wardell Gray
I have only just found another 'treat' on Amazon.com. On the link :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000000 Y33/qid=1012905417/sr=1-4/ref=sr _1_11_4/102-0920926-9808148

Just listen to the first 'take' of "Twisted" on The Wardell Gray Memorial Volume 1. It IS THE one that Annie Ross wrote the words to. An Awesome Expewrience !!!! Listen to the Annie Ross version, then Wardell Gray. I challenge you NOT to try singing along.

"Sing A Song of Basie"
Now I should say that this is not among my very favourite jazz albums. It gets a bit 'raucous' to me on occasions, but some pieces bring back memories of that very worn EP, so I had to buy it...

The amazon.com link, again, is :

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000058 A17/ref=pd_sim_music/102-0920926 -9808148

The track listing :

1. Everyday
2. It's Sand, Man!
3. Two For Blues
4. One O'Clock Jump
5. Little Pony
6. Down For Double
7. Fiesta In Blue
8. Down For The Count
9. Blues Backstage
10. Avenue C
11. Four Brothers
12. Cloudburst
13. Standin' On The Corner

Excerpts of all are available on the amazon site. Try "Everyday", "Little Pony", and "Four Brothers". However, I should say that this is one of those 'digitally remastered' albums, and it doesn't always seem to work as it should. "Cloudburst" is just not the same 'balance' as the original vinyl and this is not the first time I have complained about CD's re-issued as 'digitally remastered'. However it is a great example of Jon Hendricks ability to twist his voice around what seems to be the impossible.

Other Albums.
After borrowing that first brilliant LHR Album, I followed it up with their nex
t release in the UK, on the Prestige Jazz label - "The Swingers" from the Jazz Record Library.

This would definitely be among my favourite Jazz albums, but it is NOT available yet on CD, and I regret that I didn't buy it on vinyl when I was in my affluent 20's. Although that reel-to-reel tape recorder is long gone, I can still remember the lyrics from two or three of the pieces word-for-word.

One of them is the Charlie Parker piece "Now's the Time!" referred to above.

They also recorded with the Count Basie Band - "Sing Along With Basie", but again this has yet to be re-issued. I heard this only once, in the flat of a friend-of-a-friend in Leeds in the mid-1960's.

I live in hopes of these both being transferred to digital (without 'problems'!), together with anything else that I might have missed.

Post-Script
It was only a week or so that I found out why LHR split up. As mentioned earlier, Jon Hendricks was performing in London, and he was interviewed in The Times on 15 January. The reason for their splitting up was Annie Ross's heroin addiction.

When examining the accounts for the Group, Hendricks noticed that Annie Ross seemed to be spending far more on airline travel than the others. Closer questioning established that there was an entry of $30,000 that was actually to cover "her supplies". What a shame !!

On the night of 15 January, I went to see two of today's best Jazz players perform at Henry's Jazz Cellar in Edinburgh - a brilliant place for night-bird-Jazz-fans like me.

The saxophone player Scott Hamilton was performing with the Edinburgh-based pianist Brian Kellock. I chatted to Brian Kellock's Mum (Margaret) and her friend on the next table and I was saying that I wished that I could have visited London that night or during the weekend, since Jon Hendricks was performing at "The Jazz
Cafe".

Scott and Brian were drinking on the next table in front, and Scott obviously overheard me, because the first piece that they played after the interval was a Duke Ellington number, and when Scott started his 16 bar solo, he played the opening phrase from the LHR number "Swinging 'till the Girls Come Home" (from "The Swingers").

This (literally) brought gasps from the audience (because it is quite a complex melodic line), and a broad smile from Scott in my direction, as if thanking me for the 'inspiration'.

So there you are – a group that few will have heard of. If you are among them, and are willing to listen to a broad church of music, please consider giving them a try through those links.

And buying that double album won’t break the Bank .....

Most who know me say they wonder why I am so enthusiastic about Jazz and this music in particular. Search me (!), but I do reckon that it is brilliant !!! I just wish I could have seen them perform together, but the music still sounds so 'fresh'.

If you have a few minutes, give this music a try and let me know how you feel about it.

© Sidneygee 2002

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