Ernestine Anderson

Ernestine Anderson (November 11, 1928 – March 10, 2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. In a career spanning more than six decades, she recorded over 30 albums. She was nominated four times for a Grammy Award. She sang at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival (six times over a 33-year span), as well as at jazz festivals all over the world. In the early 1990s she joined Qwest Records, the label founded by fellow Garfield High School graduate Quincy Jones. She was a twin sister to Joesephine Anderson.

Life and career Ernestine Irene Anderson on November 11, 1928. Her mother, Erma, was a housewife, and her father, Joseph, a construction worker who sang bass in a gospel quartet. By the age of three, Anderson showed a talent for singing along with her parents' old blues 78 rpm records by the likes of Bessie "The Empress of the Blues" Smith. Anderson started singing at a local church, singing solos in its gospel choir.

Anderson tells of her early life in the 1998 book The Jazz Scene:

"My parents used to play blues records all the time," Ernestine Anderson told me. "John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, all the blues greats. In Houston, where I grew up, you turned on the radio and what you got was country and western and gospel. I don't even remember what my first experience with music was. I sort of grew into it. My father sang in a gospel quartet and I used to follow him around, and both my grandparents sang in the Baptist church choir. And they had big bands coming through Houston like Jimmie Lunceford, Billy Eckstine, Erskine Hawkins, and Count Basie." Ernestine's godmother entered her in a local talent contest when she was twelve years old. "I only knew two songs," she admitted, "'On the Sunny Side of the Street' and 'So Long'. The piano player asked me what key did I do these songs in and I just said 'C' for some reason and it was the wrong key. In order to save face I sang around the melody, improvised among the melody, and when I finished one of the musicians told me I was a jazz singer."

Her family moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1944, In 1952, she went on tour with Lionel Hampton's orchestra. led to a partnership with trumpeter Rolf Ericson for a three-month Scandinavian tour.

Her re-emergence in the mid-1970s (at which time Ray Brown was her manager) came as a result of a sensational appearance at the 1976 Concord Jazz Festival.

Ernestine Anderson was a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. She died peacefully, surrounded by her family in Shoreline, Washington, on March 10, 2016, at the age of 87.

Ernestine Anderson's great-grandson, Dwone Anderson-Young, was murdered on June 1, 2014.

Awards and honors Ernestine Anderson was featured in an article in Time magazine, August 4, 1958: "the voice belongs to Negro Singer Ernestine Anderson, at 29 perhaps the best-kept jazz secret in the land" after her first album release. She is inevitably compared to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday. Ernestine invariably rejects the comparisons. "I wish," she says, "they would let me be just me."

Anderson was one of 75 women chosen for the book, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America (1999), by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Brian Lanker. Within this book Ernestine Anderson joins such company as Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, Oprah Winfrey, Lena Horne, and Sarah Vaughan. The award honors artists from the Northwestern United States "who have significantly contributed to the cultural landscape of our region."

Anderson was chosen by the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Recording Academy (an organization best known for the Grammy Awards) to receive its 2004 IMPACT Award. The IMPACT Award honors Northwest music professionals whose creative talents and accomplishments have crossed all musical boundaries and who have been recognized as an asset to the music community.

In 2012, the Low Income Housing Institute named a housing project the "Ernestine Anderson Place" in her honor, noting Anderson's long residence in Seattle's Central District where the units are located.

Discography As leader Hot Cargo [AKA It's Time For Ernestine] (Mercury, 1958) The Toast of the Nation's Critics (Mercury, 1959) The Fascinating Ernestine (Mercury, 1960) My Kinda Swing (Mercury, 1960) Moanin' Moanin' Moanin' (Mercury, 1960) The New Sound of Ernestine Anderson (Sue, 1963) Miss Ernestine Anderson (Columbia, 1967) Hello Like Before (Concord Jazz, 1977) Live from Concord to London (Concord Jazz, 1978) Sunshine (Concord Jazz, 1980) Never Make Your Move Too Soon (Concord Jazz, 1981) Seven Stars with Cal Tjader, Teddy Wilson, Eddie Duran (Concord Jazz, 1983) Big City (Concord Jazz, 1983) Three Pearls with Chris Connor, Carol Sloane (Eastworld, 1984) When the Sun Goes Down (Concord Jazz, 1984) Be Mine Tonight (Concord 1986) A Perfect Match with George Shearing (Concord Jazz, 1988) Boogie Down with the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (Concord Jazz, 1989) Live at the Concord Jazz Festival: Third Set with Ed Bickert, Gene Harris, Marshall Royal (Concord Jazz, 1991) Now and Then (Qwest, 1993) Three Ladies of Jazz: Live in New York with Diane Schuur, Dianne Reeves (Jazz Door, 1995) Blues, Dues & Love News (Qwest, 1996) Isn't It Romantic (Koch Jazz, 1998) Love Makes the Changes (HighNote, 2003) A Song for You (HighNote, 2009) Nightlife: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola (HighNote, 2011) Ernestine Anderson Swings the Penthouse (HighNote, 2015) - recorded 1962

As guest Ray Brown Trio, Live at the Concord Jazz Festival 1979 (Concord Jazz, 1979) Frank Capp/Nat Pierce Juggernaut, Live at the Alley Cat (Concord Jazz, 1987) George Shearing, Dexterity (Concord Jazz, 1988) Concord All Stars, Ow! (Concord Jazz, 1988)

Grammy history Career nominations: Four

Ernestine Anderson Grammy History Year Category Genre Title Label Result 1996 Best Jazz Vocal Performance Jazz Blues, Dues & Love News Qwest 1993 Best Jazz Vocal Performance Jazz Now and Then Concord 1983 Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female Jazz Big City Concord 1981 Best Jazz Vocal Performance - Female Jazz Never Make Your Move Too Soon Concord