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Itinerary
 With a new CD (Love Makes the Changes, High Note, 2003) receiving critical acclaim, Ernestine Anderson demonstrates once again that she is one of our greatest jazz vocalists. An acknowledged virtuoso of the blues - her rendition of "Never Make Your Move Too Soon" is a classic - Ms. Anderson is equally superb with ballads and swing. Her sultry, sensuous voice is intimate in small club settings and soars with passionate intensity in the festival arena.
Whether it’s Ellington or Sting Ernestine Anderson’s interpretation of a song is infectious. On stage, she’s charming and vivacious, her joy in the music delighting audiences from Sweden to Japan. Ernestine Anderson has recorded more than 30 albums, performed at all the major jazz festivals, and has received four Grammy
nominations. She was one of 75 women chosen for the book I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Brian Lanker, joining such company as Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Barbara Jordan, and Toni Morrison. Born in Houston, Texas, on November 11, 1928, into a family of singers, Ernestine grew up with the blues. As a child, she joined her father and grandmother singing gospel. When she was 12, Ernestine entered a talent contest and so impressed trumpeter Russell Jacquet that he hired her on the spot to sing with his big band. At 18, she left Seattle, where her family had moved in 1944, to tour for a year with the Johnny Otis band. She hit the road again in 1952 with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra. In 1953, she settled in New York, determined to make her way as a singer. In 1955, she cut a few tracks with alto saxophonist GiGi Gryce,
which brought her to the attention of the larger jazz world. In 1956, she went to Sweden, where she was a huge sensation. While in Sweden, Ernestine Anderson cut her first solo album, which was released here in 1958 by Mercury Records under the title Hot Cargo. With this album, Ernestine’s star rose rapidly. She was asked to perform in the first Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, was named "Best New Vocal Star" in Down Beat’s 1959 Critics Poll, and was featured in Time magazine. She recorded more albums for Mercury and toured extensively until changing musical tastes in the 60s made times tough for jazz musicians everywhere. After living a few years in Europe in the mid-60s, Ms. Anderson returned home and went into semi-retirement. In 1976, with the urging of bassist Ray Brown, she resumed her career by signing with Concord Records, for whom she made nearly twenty recordings, two of which,
Never Make Your Move Too Soon (1981) and Big City (1983), received Grammy nominations. In the 1990s she recorded two CDs on Quincy Jones’ label, Blues, Dues, & Love News and Now and Then, both of which also received Grammy nominations. Ernestine Anderson has earned her title of "jazz legend". Years of singing and living have shaped a vocalist who can make your heart cry one moment and dance the next. Poignant ballads, sassy swing, and down-home blues -- Ernestine Anderson is master of them all.
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