Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Ernestine Anderson was born November 11, 1928 in Houston, Texas. By age three she was singing along with the raw tunes of the legendary Bessie Smith and soon moved on to the more refined environs of her local church, singing solos in its gospel choir. She grew up listening to John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and other blues greats while listening to the live performances of the Jimmy Lunceford, Billy Eckstine, Erskine Hawkins and Count Basie big bands. At twelve she entered into a local talent contest and singing around the melody in the wrong key was told she was a jazz singer.

Moving to Seattle with her family when she was sixteen, Ernestine graduated from Garfield High and at eighteen went on the road with the Johnny Otis band. By 1952 she was with Lionel Hampton, then settled in New York working with Gigi Gryce, touring Europe with Rolf Ericson. She recorded her debut album “Hot Cargo” in Sweden and released by Mercury Records. She won Down Beat’s “New Star” award in ’59, continued to record for Mercury to sensational acclaim, splitting her time between the States and Europe.

Anderson stepped out of the limelight as the Sixties ushered in rock and roll but re-emerged in the mid 1970’s with Ray Brown as her manager. Her appearance at the Concord Jazz Festival led to a string of albums for the label working into the ‘90s with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra among others.

In 2008 she fell on hard times and her family home facing foreclosure, was saved by an outpouring of donations by friends and colleagues like Quincy Jones and Dianne Schuur. Ernestine Anderson, a jazz and blues singer has enjoyed a career that has spanned over half a century has recorded over 30 albums, been nominated four times for a Grammy Award, has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Monterey Jazz Festival six times during her prolific career as well as jazz festivals and clubs all over the world.

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