Reviewed Saturday 14th June, 2014
Australian jazz singer, Kate Fuller, takes on the role of
Annie Ross at the closing night of her short lived Covent Garden, London club,
Annie's Room. She opened the club in 1964 and, in spite of featuring a string of great jazz musicians and having a VIP clientele, it had failed by 1965.
Annabelle Allan Short was born in Mitcham, Surrey, in 1930 to Scottish parents, who were touring in Vaudeville. She is probably best known as a member of the vocal trio, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, who produced seven albums in a singing style known as vocalese between 1957 and 1962, when she quit the group. With
Dave Lambert and
Jon Hendricks she would add words to instrumentals, often recording numerous lines each to simulate an entire big band.
Fuller opens the show leading the audience, by way of finger snapping, into
It Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It) by
Sy Oliver and Trummy Young, that was a big hit for
Ella Fitzgerald. Fuller stays in character as Annie, so it was amusing to see how many people looked around when she called out to Anita O'Day at the back of the room. Swinging along through
Duke Ellington's
It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got That Swing) she begins to tell the story of Annie's life, left in America with an aunt and becoming, briefly a child star.
The swing version of
Loch Lomond reminded us of her Scottish heritage, recorded at about the time that she changed her name to
Annie Ross, and then
Give Me The Simple Life reminded us that this was far from her reality. Her drug addiction and failed relationships took their toll although, amazingly, she is still alive and living in New York, unlike many of her contemporaries.
Kate Fuller really knows her subject, and it is easy to see that she has put a lot of time into her research. That included Fuller interviewing Ross in 2011.She has also carefully considered the songs that she has chosen to illuminate her narrative. Most importantly, of course, is her performance, both as a jazz singer and as an actor. She studied at the Los Angeles Music Academy and again at home at the Elder Conservatorium of Music at the University of Adelaide in vocal performance and jazz voice, and has already recorded several albums. There is no doubt at all about the quality of her singing, her phrasing and interpretations reminiscent of Ross, but with Fuller's own personality driving the style. When we got to the vocalese work, on
Twisted, she was nothing short of amazing. She even attempted to give us Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, all on her won, and pulled it off.
Fuller is accompanied by a great trio, with Dave McEvoy, piano, Sam Zerna, bass, and Steve Neville, drums. Her rendition of
My Funny Valentine, with just Zera's walking bass accompaniment, is excellent work by both of them. Neville's work with brushes is just so smooth, and McEvoy is an impeccable accompanist bringing vast experience to the evening.
Added to that was her wonderful acting in the role of
Annie Ross. Her characterisation effectively turned this into an almost autobiographical piece. Fuller was, in fact, already in character as the audience arrived, welcoming patrons to her club, Annie's Room. We also get unexpected laughs from little anecdotes dropped casually into the monologue, such as going shoplifting with the great
Billie Holiday.
There was something for everybody in this gem of a show, although it seemed to be over far too soon. For those with some knowledge of the history of jazz, there was the added enjoyment of facts and stories that had come out, one expects, during the interview that Fuller conducted with Ross, and not to be found even in Leonard Feather's Encyclopaedia of Jazz. Fuller closed with
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, which was advice that was promptly ignored by everybody, as they praised her performance in the foyer afterwards.
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