Jon and Dave had hit a rough patch.
There were hardly any jobs for them, no record deals, no money. Both were newly divorced – they shared a cheap apartment on Cornelia Street in downtown Manhattan, but they could barely afford food. Even at “Joe’s Dinette,” where they had been able to run a tab for a while, they could no longer get credit—their debt was too high. In 1956, the job description “bebop singer” simply didn’t cut it anymore. It’s not like they didn’t have anything to show for themselves. Dave had had a vocal duo with Buddy Stewart (1922-1950), had led the Dave Lambert Singers – he was an expert in vocal ensembles. Jon, on the other hand, had written songs for Louis Jordan and made a recording with King Pleasure – he had a special talent for song lyrics.
One day Dave said: “Why don’t you write lyrics to a few Count Basie songs – and we’ll try to get a record company interested?” As Jon had nothing else to do, he set to work. The idea was to translate well-known recordings of the Basie orchestra note for note into words (the melodies, the riffs, the solos, everything) – and Dave would then arrange the whole thing for a 12-piece mixed choir, a vocal big band of sorts. The two of them trawled through the New York record companies, bringing along the first songs – but to no avail. Only one young producer at a brand new label showed any interest at all. He was prepared to hire a choir and Count Basie’s own rhythm section as accompanists.
During rehearsals, however, it quickly became apparent that the professional vocal group, trained in advertising jingles for the radio, didn’t feel the swing. Jon and Dave tried to “train” the men – and as for the women, they asked Annie Ross for help, who already had experience vocalizing jazz solos. But when all their efforts turned out to be in vain, the term “overdubbing” came up. Nobody knew exactly how to do this in 1957, but they decided to give it a shot, meaning that Dave, Jon and Annie had to take on all twelve vocal parts themselves, in four passes. It was a pioneering act – with a single microphone (mono!) and an Ampex tape recorder. During the first attempts, they recorded the lead vocals first – only to find that they ended up drowning in the tape noise. So they tried again, now in reverse order. To keep the enormous studio time affordable, they worked at night from 8.30 pm to 6.30 am – for months, from August to November.
The album Sing A Song Of Basie contains ten Basie hits such as “One O’Clock Jump” or “Little Pony” – almost all of them blues pieces.
Annie Ross sings the high trumpet parts (with all the squeaks and shakes), Jon Hendricks the hyper-fast tenor sax solos – and all with lyrics. The themes and riffs of the brass sections were shared between the three of them – with twelve voices, the possible combinations are endless. Each song is like a little jazz operetta with aria and counter-aria, interjections and choirs. Even though the record doesn’t contain a single original note, it still has an authentic jazz feel. When it was released in February 1958, it the scene ablaze. Downbeat wrote: “The results are fantastic. The words alone are amazing. One of the outstanding listening experiences of the year. Five stars.” By November 1958, Jon Hendricks was so well known that he got to host the Downbeat Poll Awards at Carnegie Hall. In the same month, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross made their first TV appearance. The small apartment in Cornelia Street and the debts at “Joe’s Dinette” were now a thing of the past. This was the start of a great career.
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross – Sing A Song Of Basie on discogs.com