‘Twisted’ lyricist, vocalese pioneer Annie Ross has Died

Annabelle Allan Short, known professionally as Annie Ross, died on July 21 in New York City, four days ahead of her 90th Birthday. She was best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross along with the late Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks. She had been the last surviving member of the group. Born in London in 1930, the daughter of Scottish vaudevillians,  Ross lived most of her life in America.   She was involved in entertainment from an early age, appearing in an Our Gang feature at age seven. At 14 a song she wrote one a contest and was recorded by Johnny Mercer. By tenth grade she left school to pursue her career as a singer. Ross wrote one of the most memorable songs of the 1950s, the vocalese classic “Twisted.” The lyrics, which broadly satirize psychoanalysis, were set to the music of a tenor saxophone solo waxed by Detroit tenor saxist Wardell Gray in 1949. “Twisted” first appeared on the 1952 album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings. It became an underground hit and earned Ross DownBeat’s New Star award. Between 1957 and 1962 she would record seven memorable albums with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. On their debut, Sing a Song of Basie, the group sang all the front line instrumental parts to Count Basie songs, extending the vocalese concept. In 1960, at the top of their game, the group recorded another, more light-hearted v