Review: Annie Ross, Glasgow Oran Mor

By David Pollock
Published on Thursday 23 February 2012 01:34

ANNIE Ross’s eight decades don’t show in her demeanour or her looks, with her immaculate copper bob and understated vocal sexuality suggesting timeless youth here.

It was only when the jazz singer illustrated the occasional song with a story that the length of her career revealed itself. She met Billy Strayhorn when they lived in Paris, and her breathy, delicate take on Lush Life was “how he taught it to me”. The old-fashioned curio humour of One Meatball, meanwhile, reminded her of its original performer, Josh White, and his shirt-unbuttoned performances; this was “way before Belafonte”, of course.

Playing the first of two dates at Oran Mor to coincide with the premiere of a film about her life at the Glasgow Film Festival, Ross (born Annabelle Short in London and raised in America, she’s Scottish by descent; her brother was Jimmy Logan) was as low-key as the genteel audience who applauded politely.

This was an old-style performance by a jazz chanteuse who went for precious few of the vocal gymnastics associated with the style nowadays, instead relying on a smooth tone and dextrously voiced interpretation.

The sometime Lambert, Hendricks & Ross singer was backed by just a pianist and a double bassist, and although the odd uptempo track (like one of her signature songs, Twisted) seemed a touch too pacy for her current vocal dexterity, Ross’s takes on A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and Bye Bye Blackbird were striking in a manner that neither craved nor needed our attention.

Rating: ***

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