Ernestine Anderson
Encyclopedia
Ernestine Anderson is an American
jazz
and blues
singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award
. She has sung at Carnegie Hall
, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival
(six times over a 33-year span), as well as at jazz festivals all over the world. In the early 1990s she joined Qwest Records
, the label of fellow Garfield High School
grad Quincy Jones
.
, the daughter of a construction worker. At age three, she could sing along with the raw tunes of the legendary Bessie Smith
; she soon moved on to the more refined environs of her local church, singing solos in its gospel choir.
Anderson tells of her early life in the book, The Jazz Scene (1998):
Her family moved to Seattle, Washington
in 1944, when she was sixteen. Anderson graduated from Garfield High School
. When she was eighteen, she left Seattle, to tour for a year with the Johnny Otis
band. In 1952, she went on tour with Lionel Hampton
's orchestra. After a year with the legendary band, she settled in New York
, determined to make her way as a singer. Her appearance on Gigi Gryce
's 1955 album Nica's Tempo
(Savoy) led to a partnership with trumpeter Rolf Ericson
for a three-month Scandinavian tour. Ernestine's first album in the United States
was made after her debut album, recorded in Sweden
and released here by Mercury Records
under the title Hot Cargo (1958), which created a huge sensation. In 1959 Anderson won the Down Beat "New Star" Award and recorded for Mercury to more acclaim, before dividing her time from the mid-60's between America and Europe.
Her re-emergence in the mid-1970s (at which time Ray Brown was her manager) came as a result of a sensational appearance at the 1976 Concord Jazz Festival
, a string of albums for Concord Records followed. Anderson has continued her career revival into the 1990s, working with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, amongst others.
In 2008, her home—which had been in her family for decades—was scheduled for foreclosure
for debts of $48,000. The home was saved by donations by friends such as Quincy Jones
and Diane Schuur
.
Anderson is currently represented by Addeo Music International (AMI)
.
, August 4, 1958: "the voice belongs to Negro Singer Ernestine Anderson, at 29 perhaps the best-kept jazz secret in the land" after her first album release. She is inevitably compared to Ella Fitzgerald
, Sarah Vaughan
, Billie Holiday
. Ernestine invariably rejects the comparisons. "I wish," she says, "they would let me be just me." She is, and "just me" is plenty good enough.
Anderson was one of 75 women chosen for the book, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America (1999), by Pulitzer Prize
winning photographer Brian Lanker
. Within this book Ernestine Anderson joins such company as Rosa Parks
, Coretta Scott King
, Oprah Winfrey
, Lena Horne
, and Sarah Vaughan
.
She won the Golden Umbrella award at the Bumbershoot Seattle arts festival in 2002. The award honors artists from the Northwestern United States "who have significantly contributed to the cultural landscape of our region."
Anderson was chosen by the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy
(an organization best known for the Grammy Awards) to receive its 2004 IMPACT Award. The IMPACT Award honors Northwest music professionals whose creative talents and accomplishments have crossed all musical boundaries and who have been recognized as an asset to the music community.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singer. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
. She has sung at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival
Monterey Jazz Festival
The Monterey Jazz Festival is one of the longest consecutively running jazz festivals. It debuted on October 3, 1958 and was founded by San Francisco jazz radio broadcaster Jimmy Lyons.-History:...
(six times over a 33-year span), as well as at jazz festivals all over the world. In the early 1990s she joined Qwest Records
Qwest Records
Qwest Records is the American record label started by Quincy Jones in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, and owned byWarner Music Group. although Quincy was still under contract with A&M records through 1981. George Benson's 1980 Give Me the Night LP was the first release on Qwest,...
, the label of fellow Garfield High School
Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)
James A. Garfield High School is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington, USA.Located along 23rd Avenue between E. Alder and E. Jefferson Streets in Seattle's urban Central District, Garfield draws students from all over the city...
grad Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
.
Biography
Anderson was born in Houston, TexasHouston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, the daughter of a construction worker. At age three, she could sing along with the raw tunes of the legendary Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
; she soon moved on to the more refined environs of her local church, singing solos in its gospel choir.
Anderson tells of her early life in the book, The Jazz Scene (1998):
- "My parents used to play blues records all the time," Ernestine Anderson told me. "John Lee HookerJohn Lee HookerJohn Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
, Muddy WatersMuddy WatersMcKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, all the blues greats. In Houston, where I grew up, you turned on the radio and what you got was country and western and gospel. I don't even remember what my first experience with music was. I sort of grew into it. My father sang in a gospel quartet and I used to follow him around, and both my grandparents sang in the Baptist church choir. And they had big bands coming through Houston like Jimmie LuncefordJimmie LuncefordJames Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.-Biography:...
, Billy EckstineBilly EckstineWilliam Clarence Eckstine was an American singer of ballads and a bandleader of the swing era. Eckstine's smooth baritone and distinctive vibrato broke down barriers throughout the 1940s, first as leader of the original bop big-band, then as the first romantic black male in popular...
, Erskine HawkinsErskine HawkinsErskine Ramsay Hawkins was an American trumpet player and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is most remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" with saxophonist and arranger Bill Johnson...
, and Count BasieCount BasieWilliam "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
." Ernestine's godmother entered her in a local talent contest when she was twelve years old. "I only knew two songs," she admitted, "On the Sunny Side of the StreetOn the Sunny Side of the Street"On the Sunny Side of the Street" is a song with music composed by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, which was introduced in the Broadway musical Lew Leslie's International Revue, starring Harry Richman and Gertrude Lawrence....
" and "So Long". The piano player asked me what key did I do these songs in and I just said "C" for some reason and it was the wrong key. In order to save face I sang around the melody, improvised among the melody, and when I finished one of the musicians told me I was a jazz singer."
Her family moved to Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
in 1944, when she was sixteen. Anderson graduated from Garfield High School
Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington)
James A. Garfield High School is a public high school in the Seattle Public Schools district of Seattle, Washington, USA.Located along 23rd Avenue between E. Alder and E. Jefferson Streets in Seattle's urban Central District, Garfield draws students from all over the city...
. When she was eighteen, she left Seattle, to tour for a year with the Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
band. In 1952, she went on tour with Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
's orchestra. After a year with the legendary band, she settled in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, determined to make her way as a singer. Her appearance on Gigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader.His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his...
's 1955 album Nica's Tempo
Nica's Tempo
Nica's Tempo is an album by Gigi Gryce recorded in 1955. The title track is a reference to Nica de Koenigswarter aka "The Bebop Baroness" or "The Jazz Baroness," a patron of jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.-Track listing:#"Speculation" – 4:03 #"In a...
(Savoy) led to a partnership with trumpeter Rolf Ericson
Rolf Ericson
Rolf Ericson was a Swedish jazz trumpeter. He also played the flugelhorn.- Early career :He moved to New York City in 1947 and in 1949 joined Charlie Barnet's big band and with Woody Herman in 1950...
for a three-month Scandinavian tour. Ernestine's first album in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
was made after her debut album, recorded in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and released here by Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
under the title Hot Cargo (1958), which created a huge sensation. In 1959 Anderson won the Down Beat "New Star" Award and recorded for Mercury to more acclaim, before dividing her time from the mid-60's between America and Europe.
- "I don't think jazz ever died. It suffered a setback during the sixties. I had to move to London in order to work because a jazz person couldn't work in the United States when rock 'n' rollRock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
became the music. I didn't think it would last this long, and I don't think the rock 'n' roll people thought it would last this long, but it had."
Her re-emergence in the mid-1970s (at which time Ray Brown was her manager) came as a result of a sensational appearance at the 1976 Concord Jazz Festival
Concord Jazz Festival
The Concord Jazz Festival is an annual event that was established in 1969 in Concord, California.The festival was launched by Carl Jefferson, a car dealer and jazz enthusiast, who managed to get a group of friends to support the concept. The city agreed to pay for half the cost...
, a string of albums for Concord Records followed. Anderson has continued her career revival into the 1990s, working with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, amongst others.
In 2008, her home—which had been in her family for decades—was scheduled for foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
for debts of $48,000. The home was saved by donations by friends such as Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
.
Anderson is currently represented by Addeo Music International (AMI)
Addeo Music International (AMI)
Addeo Music International is an international jazz booking agency established in 2008 that works with a number of internationally acclaimed artists. AMI develops its artists through focused touring initiatives and management of international performances through a network of AMI-affiliated...
.
Selected discography
- 1956: MEP 190 - 7" w/Duke Jordan recorded in Sweden (Metronome)
- 1956: Hot Cargo - (Mercury RecordsMercury RecordsMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
) - 1958: The Toast of the Nation's Critics - (Mercury Records)
- 1960: My Kinda Swing- (Mercury Records)
- 1963: The New Sound of Ernestine Anderson Collectable Jazz Classic - (Sue RecordsSue RecordsSue Records was founded in 1957 by Henry 'Juggy' Murray in New York City.Also within the group was Symbol Records and Sue also financed and distributed A.F.O.Records owned by Harold Battiste in New Orleans....
) - 1977: Hello Like Before - (Concord RecordsConcord RecordsConcord Records is a U.S. record label now based in Beverly Hills, California. Originally known as Concord Jazz, it was established in 1972 as an off-shoot of the Concord Jazz Festival in Concord, California by festival founder Carl Jefferson, a local automobile dealer and jazz fan who sold his...
) - 1978: Live From Concord To London - (Concord Records)
- 1980: Sunshine - (Concord Records)
- 1981: Never Make Your Move Too Soon - (Concord Records)
- 1983: Big City - (Concord Records)
- 1985: When the Sun Goes Down - (Concord Records)
- 1987: Live at the Alley Cat: With the Frank Capp/Nat Pierce Juggernaut - (Bellaphon Records)
- 1987: Be Mine Tonight - (Concord Records)
- 1988: A Perfect Match With George Shearing - (Concord Records)
- 1990: Boogie Down - (Concord Records)
- 1990: Live at the 1990 Concord Jazz Festival Third Set - (Concord Records)
- 1991: Boogie Down With the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra - (Concord Records)
- 1993: Great Moments With Ernestine Anderson - (Concord Records)
- 1994: Now and Then - (Qwest RecordsQwest RecordsQwest Records is the American record label started by Quincy Jones in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, and owned byWarner Music Group. although Quincy was still under contract with A&M records through 1981. George Benson's 1980 Give Me the Night LP was the first release on Qwest,...
) - 1996: Blues, Dues & Love News - (Qwest Records)
- 1998: Isn't It Romantic - (Koch International Records)
- 2000: Ballad Essentials - (Concord Records)
- 2002: I Love Being Here With You - (Concord Records)
- 2002: Free Soul: The Classic of Ernestine Anderson - (JVC Japan Records)
- 2003: Love Makes the Changes - (High Note Records)
- 2004: Hello Like Before - (JvVC Victor Records)
- 2009: A Song For You - (HighNote Records)
Grammy history
- Career Nominations: 4
| Ernestine Anderson Grammy History | |||||
| Year | Category | Genre | Title | Label | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | Jazz | Blues, Dues & Love News | Qwest | Nominated |
| 1993 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance | Jazz | Now and Then | Concord | Nominated |
| 1983 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female | Jazz | Big City | Concord | Nominated |
| 1981 | Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female | Jazz | Never Make Your Move Too Soon | Concord | Nominated |
Recognitions
Ernestine Anderson was featured in an article in Time magazineTime (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, August 4, 1958: "the voice belongs to Negro Singer Ernestine Anderson, at 29 perhaps the best-kept jazz secret in the land" after her first album release. She is inevitably compared to Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. Ernestine invariably rejects the comparisons. "I wish," she says, "they would let me be just me." She is, and "just me" is plenty good enough.
Anderson was one of 75 women chosen for the book, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America (1999), by Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography has been awarded since 1968 for a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album....
winning photographer Brian Lanker
Brian Lanker
Brian Lanker was an American photographer. He won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for a black-and-white photo essay on childbirth for The Topeka Capital-Journal, including the photograph "Moment of Life". Lanker died at his home in Eugene, Oregon on March 13, 2011 after a brief...
. Within this book Ernestine Anderson joins such company as Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
, Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
, Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, and Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
.
She won the Golden Umbrella award at the Bumbershoot Seattle arts festival in 2002. The award honors artists from the Northwestern United States "who have significantly contributed to the cultural landscape of our region."
Anderson was chosen by the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
(an organization best known for the Grammy Awards) to receive its 2004 IMPACT Award. The IMPACT Award honors Northwest music professionals whose creative talents and accomplishments have crossed all musical boundaries and who have been recognized as an asset to the music community.