Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - The Hottest New Group In Jazz (1959)

Picked up this cracking little vocal jazz album following a recent binge of the Fargo TV series.  Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross started working together in 1957 and quickly became a successful "vocalese" trio.  Per this definition, their agile voices were able to imitate jazz instrumentation with snappy, witty lyrics, and combined with boppish small-group backing made this 28-minute record a perfectly-formed winner.  

 

Not a note is wasted in the succinct running time, and every song is good, whether putting lyrics to popular jazz tunes or in material fully penned by members of the trio.  One teenage fan up in Saskatchewan was so influenced by the record - "I considered that album to be my Beatles. I learned every song off of it" - that she later returned the favour by covering two songs from it on her own albums: Annie Ross' Twisted on Court & Spark, and Edison/Hendricks' Centrepiece on The Hissing Of Summer Lawns.  

 

The original versions of those two songs are great to discover after being so accustomed to Joni's versions, and other highlights for me (among many) are the languid Moanin' (used to such great effect in Fargo), Sermonette, Summertime... pretty much all of them.  Love this uplifting little treasure.

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