“A voice to make more heralded singers weep with envy.” –Chris Albertson, Stereo Review 
 

Ernestine Anderson

From ballads to blues to swing, in small ensemble or fronting a big band, Ernestine Anderson has engaged audiences worldwide with her soulful voice. And at 80, she should be looking back on a successful career. Instead, the sultry singer keeps looking ahead to the next gig, the next recording. One of those next gigs will be on the stage of the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis, November 30th  and December 1st.  

A native of Houston later transplanted to Seattle, Anderson recalls singing along with Bessie Smith records and in church when she was just three years old. Her father sang at different area churches with a quartet, often taking young Ernestine along. But it was the voice of Sarah Vaughan that inspired her to a career in song. “I learned to sing her songs verbatim and everybody said I sounded just like her,” she wrote for Scott Yanow’s new Jazz Singers guide (Backbeat Books, 2008). “Then someone told me I had to gain my own identity, so I stopped listening to singers and listened to instrumentalists. That’s how I learned to be myself.” 

From her early teens, Ernestine Anderson learned to be herself with the bands of Russell Jacquet, Johnny Otis and Lionel Hampton. After recording a few records in the late 1940s and early 50s, she relocated to New York where she released an acclaimed version of “Social Call” with Gigi Gryce that landed her a tour of Scandinavia. The experience, her first encounter with a culture where skin color was irrelevant, marked an important turnpoint in her career. She made her first full-length recording in Sweden, Hot Cargo, well received when released in the U.S. in 1958. Back in the U.S., she recorded for Mercury, sang at the first Monterey Jazz Festival and was named the 1959 “Best New Vocal Star” by Down Beat Magazine. She moved to London in 1965 as her success ebbed with changes in pop music tastes at home, returning to the U.S. in semi-retirement a few years later. But things turned around again in the mid-70s after bassist Ray Brown heard her and became her manager, leading to a contract with Concord records and a rejuvenation of her career. She stayed with Concord for fifteen years, releasing 20 albums and earning two Grammy nominations. In the early 90s she moved to Quincy Jones’ Qwest label, earning two more Grammy nominations. Her latest release, of more than 30 recordings, is Love Makes the Changes (High Note, 2003).  Ernestine has continued touring, performing and recording into the new millennium, prompting Chicago Tribune critic Howard Reich to comment, "Exactly how Anderson keeps her contralto so plush and supple ranks among the sweet imponderables of the art of jazz singing....  she remains an eloquent song interpreter with a broad array of expressive devices at her command." 

I had the opportunity to hear Ernestine Anderson at Dizzy’s in Manhattan two years ago. She seemed a bit frail as she settled into her chair on stage. And then she sang, the bluest blues, the sweetest ballad. For a thoroughly soulful evening, witness her long-overdue debut at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis this weekend! 
 

The Dakota is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, shows at 7 and 9:30 pm; tickets and more at www.dakotacooks.com. More on Ernestine Anderson including a video of a recent performance at www.ernestineanderson.com

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites