Celebrating Annie Ross, showbiz survivor
And all of this - plus most of her bumpy personal life - is chronicled in a new documentary which is premiering at the Glasgow Film Festival on Tuesday. Ross, now 81, will be in attendance before giving two concerts - on Tuesday and Thursday - at Glasgow’s Oran Mor.
Born into a showbusiness family, Ross was performing all over Britain before she was four years old. Her parents had a music hall act, and her brother grew up to be one of Scotland’s best-loved entertainers, Jimmy Logan.
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Hide AdIn 1934, she was taken to America as her star-struck family thought she could be the next Shirley Temple. For a while, it looked like they were right: young Annabelle won a talent contest on a radio show presented by top bandleader Paul Whiteman. The prize was an MGM contract. Her mother left her in the care of her aunt, Glasgow-born jazz singer Ella Logan, who was moving to Hollywood to pursue her own film career.
The trouble was, Ross once told me, “They had a Shirley Temple. They didn’t need another one.” Nevertheless, she appeared in a couple of films - a two-reeler in which she sang a swing version of Loch Lomond learned from Logan, and Presenting Lily Mars, in which she played Judy Garland’s kid sister.
In her teens, Ross’s relationship with her “mixed-up”, manipulative aunt deteriorated and she left to make her own way. She worked as a chorus girl, in cabaret and then established herself on the jazz scene, making her mark early on - in 1952 - with her big hit, Twisted, the first example of “vocalese” in which lyrics are written for melodies that were originally instrumentals. Ross’s witty lyrics (which she later realised had been subconsciously inspired by her twisted aunt) were set to a solo by tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray.
She joined forces with Jon Hendricks and Dave Lambert to form the pioneering vocalese trio Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in 1958 - and their debut album, of vocal versions of Count Basie arrangements, was a sensation.
Since then, her personal life and career have been through many ups (a particularly notable “up” was her involvement, as a singer and an actress, in Robert Altman’s 1992 film Short Cuts) - and you don’t get much further down than almost dying of a drug habit. But what has been consistent is Ross’s ability to survive - and in style.
• No One Else But Me screens at Glasgow Film Theatre on 21 February at 5pm; Annie Ross performs at Oran Mor the same night at 8.30pm and on 23 February at 8pm.