Lambert, Hendricks & Ross: Twisted
Track
Twisted
Group
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
CD
The Hottest New Group in Jazz (Columbia/Legacy C2K 64933)
Musicians:
Dave Lambert (vocals), Jon Hendricks (vocals), Annie Ross (vocals),
Gildo Mahones (piano), Ike Isaacs (bass), Walter Bolden (drums)
.Composed by Wardell Gray and Annie Ross
.Recorded: New York, August 6, 1959
Rating: 100/100 (learn more)
In 1952, Annie Ross's hip vocalese narrative of a crazy chick and her outmatched shrink, set to tenorman Wardell Gray's 1949 "Twisted," was marred by cheesy organ backing. In 1959, the "hottest new group in jazz," as Down Beat dubbed vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, redid "Twisted" sans organ, and nailed it. Striking a blow for mental health by refusing to listen to her analyst's jive, twisted sister Annie Ross wittily punctures the pseudoscientific claptrap of psychoanalysis, which was big in 1950s America. If Freud hadn't died twenty years earlier, he would've been driven ineluctably, irretrievably mad upon hearing "Twisted." Roll over, Sigmund, and tell Alfred Adler the news: Two heads are better than one. And three heads, in the persons of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, are best of all.
Reviewer: Alan Kurtz
Tags: twisted · vocal groups · vocalese
My dear Dr. Kurtz, you know that it's never too late to catch the "Express Express" and become a vocalese lyricist. Your tongue twists & turns, tongue in groove, and lilt-ability more than qualify you. No one can hold you back when you hold forth! Keep tappin' those keys.