{"id":31509,"date":"2026-03-01T00:11:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/?p=31509"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:00:02","slug":"sues-spotlight-annie-ross-blossom-dearie-ketty-lester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandiegotroubadour.com\/sues-spotlight-annie-ross-blossom-dearie-ketty-lester\/","title":{"rendered":"Sue\u2019s Spotlight: Annie Ross, Blossom Dearie, Ketty Lester"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have always been interested in periods of time when artistic inspirations and geography seem to coalesce into what, a few years later, would be called a \u201cscene.\u201d Some of these periods include the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and \u201930s, Paris after World War I and II, New Orleans in the teens of the 20th Century, Kansas City in the 1930s, Los Angeles and Central Avenue in the 1920s and \u201930s, scenes in the later part of the century, like the rock and punk scenes, and in the 21st<\/sup> Century, scenes like the hip hop and house subcultures. We\u2019re probably part of the post-pandemic inspiration now, but it\u2019s too early to define it quite yet.<\/em><\/p>\n

ANNIE ROSS 1930-2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Annie Ross<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One of the female musicians that embodied the Manhattan scene of the 1950s was Annie Ross. Born in London in 1930, her parents were Scottish vaudevillians. Her mother gave birth to her after a matinee performance and went on afterward to perform a night show!! She grew up surrounded by musicians and performers. Her aunt, Ella Logan, was a Scottish-American singer, who appeared on Broadway and had a nightclub career in the U.S. and internationally. She brought Annie to the U.S. when she was four years old. Annie began performing with her family at the age of three. In Los Angeles, she was in a few movies (including the Our Gang<\/em> series) and ended up moving to Paris before she finished high school, in the late \u201940s. Two years later, she was back in NYC and got a call from the producer of Prestige Records, a new jazz label. Bob Weinstock asked her to write lyrics for a jazz instrumental, and it became her best-known song, \u201cTwisted.\u201d Wardell Gray, a tenor sax player, wrote the tune, and Annie recorded the vocal. Downbeat<\/em>, America’s most prestigious jazz magazine, recognized her as a \u201cnew star.\u201d<\/p>\n