Customer Reviews

A Gasser!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album begs to be heard and released domestically. An inspired offering by one of the great underrated ladies of jazz with equally stellar performances by Zoot Sims and Russ Freedman. A true gem.

This is actually a duet album with saxophonist Zoot Sims. Ross eschewed vibrato like Anita O'Day and latter-day Shirley Horn and its great hearing her wring something from such chestnuts as "You're Nearer". This is quite different from the rapid-fire vocalese she did with Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks in the Lambert, Hendricks and Ross albums, but just as essential.

I love this album. Try it out if and when it is back in print. Annie Ross has the most interesting voice -- not a perfect voice, but she knew how to use it. There's no scat and her song choices are stellar. This disc swings. My favorites include "You're Nearer" and "I Don't Want to Cry Anymore". Her band was top-notch. Zoot Simms played his tenor sax as if he was singing, too. The band swung and Annie's timing was impeccable. She's wicked-funny singing "Everything I've Got."

Although best known as a member of the vocalese supergroup Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, the great jazz singer Annie Ross's solo albums are gems unto themselves and "A Gasser!" from 1959 is the finest of them all. Miss Ross is in peak vocal form here and is joined by the great Zoot Sims on saxophone and much of the same band featured on the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross classic "The Swingers". Don't expect any of the vocal acrobatics of the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross recordings however. This is straight-ahead jazz singing by one of the great singers in her prime. From the wry wit of "Everything I've Got" through the sheer perfection and beauty of "You're Nearer", this set is a must-have for jazz vocal fans. Highly recommended.

And dig that cover photo! What a fashionable lady!

Ross' 3rd, and final, solo album [1959] is a diamond telescope shot into the now icono-mythic jazz cabaret galaxy. Evoked, by tipsy seance, in a million noirish Hollywood scenes, this here is the real jones. Perfect singing and sax solos - totally crepuscular. Intimate, stylish and (seemingly) carefree, here's the swinging serendipity, sans cliche. All gin, baby, no vermouth.

More smouldering than gassing, though - which be fine by me.

It appears that tracks Bones for Zoot and Brushes are the same on my Pacific Jazz lable are the same. Was this ment to be? I can find nothing that will support Zoot's Bones for Zoot, it's not listed in the All Music Guide.