Annie Ross: No One But Me ArtWorks Scotland

Annie Ross was just unbelievable, she sounded like a trumpet.

Here she is back then. Beautiful and sexy.

Probably one of the greatest jazz singers of all time.

# Yeah. #

Born into the Scottish showbiz family that gave us her brother

Jimmy Logan, Annie Ross is a jazz legend.

I've heard every singer of any consequence there is.

Nobody could've done what Annie did.

"My analyst told me" - You know that one?

"That I was right out of my head."

# My analyst told me That I was right out of my head

# The way he described it

# He said I'd be better dead than live

# I didn't listen to his jive... #

She was the one who always really got it.

She swings really hard, that's the bottom line.

Annie's more like a musician than a lot of singers.

She's got diva, whatever that is,

but she's one of the cats, like, as a musician.

Oh, Annie's a legend, and she should be, rightfully so.

No-one's done that before and no-one will do it again.

Absolutely brilliant and a real one-off too.

Nobody's ever done it like her.

She could speak a song better than a lot of people could sing them.

Can I get you and the fellows to sing something for us?

Oh! All right.

As a solo artist and as part of the vocal trio

Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Annie was loved and admired by the likes

of Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday.

She was the best trumpet section we could've had.

There was no better on the planet.

# Every night Yeah

# Every noon Yeah

# Every sun Yeah

# Every moon Yeah

# Every way Yeah

# Everywhere Yeah

# I get blues Yeah

# And don't care

# Yeah!

# I run away and hide but find they follow me there

# You run away and hide but find they follow you there... #

Annie is one of the few survivors of the legendary bebop era.

Now for the first time, she tells her own remarkable story.

This is Annie Ross, unvarnished, in her own words.

About 12 o'clock noon,

and there's a woman sitting at the bar, nobody else.

And she wants to talk,

but there's no one to talk to.

So she just starts telling her story, as it comes to her.

I don't think anybody had a weirder upbringing than I did.

My mother and father were totally stage-struck,

as were many in our family.

She comes from a very famous show-business family,

a Scots family as a matter of fact.

Her father told me that he put her on stage when she was three.

HE LAUGHS

She had to come in with her mother

and her mother would sit down, you know, in the middle of the theatre.

And her grandfather would do his act

and then he'd say, "Can I get the little girl to come up,

"I'll give you a currant bun if you sing a song!"

And I'd sing at the drop of a hat.

I mean, there's a story that my mother couldn't find me

at a railway station. We were on our way somewhere by train.

And she found me in the ladies' room on top of the basin,

singing for the customers.

I was like a precocious midget.

My mum and dad wanted me to be a star.

Like, they used to call me the Scottish Shirley Temple.

# You take the high road

# And I'll take the low road

# And I'll be in Scotland afore you

# Where me and my true love will never meet again

# On the bonnie, bonnie banks De-da-de-da-da

# Of Loch Lomond. #

APPLAUSE

For the first four years of my life, I lived in Glasgow.

And then when I was four, I was told we were going to go to America.

We came over by ship to New York.

And we had to go through Ellis Island. And that was very scary.

I had an aunt called Ella Logan and she was there,

luckily enough, to claim us.

# There's a small hotel

# With a wishing well

# I wish that we were there

# Together. #

My aunt was going to Los Angeles to do films.

I went with my mother and my aunt to LA.

After I guess a couple of weeks, my mother left.

A lot of people at that time used to say,

"Oh, I'd like to buy that wee girl."

And I was terrified my mother would sell me.

So when she took off and went back to Scotland,

I felt like I'd been sold.

Let's do a ballad.

# Sing a song of sad young men Glasses full of rye

# All the news is bad again

# Kiss your dreams goodbye

# All the sad young men... #

I've just lost my earring.

# ..Sitting in the bar.

# Running... # What the fuck?

# Let your gentle light

# Guide them home again

# All the sad young men. #

And I grew to have a very acrimonious relationship with my aunt.

She was a very complicated lady.

You know, she was famous, and people were always...

I had to be introduced as her daughter, which I wasn't.

I didn't really want for anything

except love, except roots, family.

And gradually because you know you have to, you remove yourself.

And life becomes LA.

Memories were of Scotland.

But you adapt, and I had to adapt.

It was a song contest and Johnny Mercer was a judge.

# Let's fly baby Let's fly away. #

I wrote it when I was 14. It was pretty sophisticated.

# Where love's free And there's no such thing

# As a mailman, doorbell telephone... #

# Let's fly baby Let's fly away

# Across tropical seas

# We'll have fun Underneath the sun

# So come on baby, please. #

And when I wrote songs, it was always about heartbreak,

and I guess, in my mind,

I wasn't a happy kid,

and I think that's maybe how I got it out.

One day I was growing up,

and my aunt said to me, "Why don't you become a set designer

"cos you can't sing - you haven't got the magic."

So that affected me.

And above all, I wanted her approval but I couldn't get it.

I think in a way, I became a kind of competitor.

And I think that didn't sit too well for her.

# Pack up all my cares and woe

# Cos here I go

# And I'm singing low

# Bye

# Bye-bye blackbird

# Where somebody waits for me

# Sugar is sweet

# So he is

# Bye-bye... #

I got a phone-call from this composer, Hugh Martin,

and he said "Annie, I'm forming a trio in Paris.

"Would you like to join?"

I said "I'm there".

# I love Paris in the spring-time

# I love Paris in the fall

# I love Paris... #

I flew to Paris and it was bliss.

And I lived in every arrondissement,

from the very best to the "rargh!".

I worked in many clubs there, and I met some wonderful people.

Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie

James Moody, Kenny Clarke.

And they were my idols. I totally adored them.

And they liked what I did,

and it really meshed.

I mean, it was wonderful.

What I found in Paris was love and acceptance.

The French had no qualms about a white girl performing

with black musicians, whereas in America it was very difficult.

James Moody had this song, Le Vent Vert.

It's without words, very modern.

I don't know if Moody couldn't find anyone else to do it,

but he called me and I was thrilled.

There was a really great jazz scene in Paris.

Wide open and hot as fire.

You know, bebop was... such a creative thing.

And once my ear got attuned, that's all I wanted to hear.

People say to me, "What is swinging like?".

And really, it's a feeling of being all contained in the same bubble.

So you snap your fingers and you tap your foot,

and you can't not move.

The rhythm is very important.

I love to swing.

# Cheep, cheep, cheep

# Nice. #

You're in a kind of gel, and you all are on the same plane.

I really feel blessed at having the facility to do that.

# I wanna be

# No-one but me

# I'm in love with the lover Who loves me the way I am

# I have my faults

# He likes my faults

# I'm not very bright... #

Kenny Clarke was one of the greatest drummers ever.

And we had an affair, which resulted in the birth of my son,

Kenny Clarke Jr, who was born in Paris.

And er...

That was Klook, as he was known.

We didn't have enough money, Kenny Clarke and I.

He got an offer from Dizzy...

To come back.

There was only enough money for one ticket.

Kenny came off the ship

and in his hand, he had a baby, er, you know, cloth basinet.

It was blue with white trim. And here was his son.

Six months later, we had enough money to bring me over to New York.

I needed somewhere where the baby would be looked after

while I was working.

And nobody would take what they called a "half-breed child".

I boarded him at this woman's house and I got a phone-call,

about two in the morning, saying, "You come and get this child!".

I said "why?".

"He won't stop crying and you never told me he was half black."

I said "he's a child."

Klook's brother was a railway porter.

He lived in Pittsburgh in what they called the projects.

So I went and got the baby,

and then I had to take him back to Pittsburgh.

Klook's brother said to me, "Don't be taking him

"and then bringing him back and taking him again.

"A child has to have a certain... basic..."

It can't have been easy?

It was horrible.

It was horrible.

With Lambert Hendricks and Ross, whenever we played Pittsburgh,

we would be visited at wherever we were playing

by Charles Spearman and his wife and Kenny Jr.

Annie and her son with the cat.

I don't know, they seemed to hit it off really well to me.

And, er, they were both low-key, Kenny Jr and Annie,

but yet I somehow sensed that they really got along

and they cared for each other.

But he was looked after beautifully. He was loved very much

by Klook's brother and sister-in-law.

And he's gorgeous and funny.

Now he's got kids, so...

# Speak low

# When you speak love

# Our summer day withers away

# Too soon

# Too soon

# Speak low

# When you speak love... #

I don't even know where I got this record,

all I know is it says "Late in 1952 Annie Ross had the idea

"to write words to some of the selections in the prestige catalogue.

"Farmer's Market was one of those chosen because of

"the musical content and a title suggestion of a plot about an

"out-of-work musician selling beans to a cool chick in a market who he met."

# Once there was a girl She was right from the sticks

# Thought she'd go out to the market one day

# And hey, we could sure say of the town she was the toast

# Really the most We don't want to boast

# But scads of lads would all surround her

# City slickers sure would hound her

# She went to the market place and what did she see

# Crew cut and cute with a crazy goatee... #

He said we got string beans, snap beans, lima beans.

We got the very kind of beans that I would like to put

right in your pressure cooker, pretty baby.

And it ends with "crazy scenes - blame it on the beans".

# Crazy scenes Blame it on the beans. #

Dave and I had heard Twisted and Farmer's Market.

Annie was famous before we were,

singing what now is known as Vocalese.

You're putting words and you're singing the instrumental solos

that you're kind of relating to an instrumental concept of phrasing.

# My analyst told me That I was right out of my head

# The way he described it He said I'd be better dead than live

# I didn't listen to his jive

# I knew all along He was all wrong

# And I knew that he thought I was crazy

# But I'm not... #

I won the new star award.

They loved what I did with Twisted.

Twisted is a... Is a...

It's a paean, it's a hymn.

You know, it's got to do with her childhood.

# I had a brain It was insane

# Don't you let them laugh at me

# When I refused to ride on all those double decker buses

# All because there was no driver on the top. #

LAUGHTER

I was writing about my aunt

and one night, I actually sang "my aunt always told me".

# My aunt always told me That I was right out of my head

# But I said dear doctor I think that it's you instead

# Cos I have got a thing That's unique and new

# It proves that I'll have the last laugh on you

# Cos instead of one head

# Ha, I got two

# And you know two heads are better than one. #

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

Joe Glazer was the real hard-nosed agent

that was Louis Armstrong's agent, Billie Holiday's agent.

They called me up at about 8:30 in the morning, he did.

And said er, "This is Joe Glazer.

"I want you to get up to the Apollo for the first show."

I said "OK".

So just before I put the phone down, I said "Excuse me?

"What am I dong at the Apollo Theatre?"

He said "You're replacing somebody".

I said "who?". He said "Billie Holiday".

# A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces

# An airline ticket to romantic places... #

This was my dressing room.

You'd... You would spray roach spray on the walls,

the linoleum walls, and they'd go next door and come back,

because next door would spray, and back they'd come.

Let's see.

Duke went out and he said "Ladies and gentlemen,

"Sorry to inform you that our star Billie Holiday will not be appearing

"at the first show."

So a lot of people got up and walked out.

Always at the Apollo at the first show, you get the real hard nuts

who put their feet up on the seats in front of them

and say, "OK, what can you do?".

Well, thank God, I was doing very modern stuff,

like Twisted and Farmer's Market, and it worked.

And I came off and went into the wings

and Lady had been there watching me.

And she just held her arms out and we hugged one another and cried.

And Duke came off and said,

"You two beautiful...bitches...

LAUGHS

"..Come out here and take your bow."

# Every morning find me moanin'

# Yes, Lord

# Cos of all the trouble I see

# Yes, Lord

# Life's a losin' gamble to me

# Yes, Lord

# Cares and woes have got me moanin'

# Yes, Lord

# Every evening find me moanin'

# Yes, Lord

# I'm alone and cryin' the blues

# Yes, Lord

# I'm so tired of payin' these dues

# Yes, Lord

# Everybody knows I'm moanin'

# Yes, Lord

# I spend plenty of days and nights alone with my grief... #

When she was with Lambert Hendricks and Ross, I mean

she was singing all the lead trumpet parts.

I mean her range was astonishing.

She was carrying the whole brass section, you know.

And doing it brilliantly. I mean, it was just fantastic.

Nobody else could do that in those days, only her and Jon Hendricks.

# Cos weird designs

# They only show what's goin' on in weirder minds

# Cos when you doodle Then your noodle's flying blind

# Every little thing that you write

# Just conceivably might

# Be a thought that you captured

# While coppin' a wink

# Doodlin' takes you beyond what you see

# Then you draw what you think... #

They became one of the hottest acts in this country.

I mean, Lambert Hendricks and Ross - my God, you know.

The stuff she did with Lambert Hendricks and Ross.

I mean, it's fantastic.

Maybe she's a bit above the general public's head in that sense,

you know.

"Halloween Spooks outside my window"

and then she does, they all do a part and scat.

Dave Lambert, he does a ghost scatting.

Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Then Jon Hendricks does an owl or something, scatting.

Then when she comes on, she scats like a witch.

Eeeh! Ehhh!

ANNIE HUMS IN STYLE OF A WITCH

Clever, great, wonderful.

She saw, and heard, what was perfect for her,

and she stepped right into it and never left.

And she's still here now.

Getting back together with Jon...

is getting back together with Jon.

# New York I dig.

# New York is big

# I flipped my wig

# But I think I did... #

Our voices are not the same range as they were

because Jon is 90 or almost 90, and I'm going to be 81.

THEY SCAT TOGETHER

Well, there are some songs we can't do because the range is so high.

So we do the ones we can do.

Ah! Wooh, that's delicious!

I'll have another glass of that.

She was the only real vocalist of the group.

Dave wasn't really a vocalist, he was an arranger,

and his main instrument was the pen.

And Jon was a poet who I think just dabbled in music

but was really a musical talent.

Dave says, "Why don't you put some words to ten Count Basie things

"and we'll see if we can sell 'em."

I said "Are you kidding?

"Do you know how long it takes to write one band arrangement?

"Do you know the detail?

"You have to tell a story, it has to have a beginning, a middle

"and an end, the horns have to be a cast of characters,

"you must have a plot,

"it must all fuse together in a dramatic way like a play."

It's very difficult to write ten of those.

And Dave says, "Well, what else you got to do?"

# Two for the blues

# Baby and me

# Two for the blues

# Blue as can be

# Two for the blues

# Couldn't agree

# Two for the blues

# Indigo hue. #

I had a little tape, and I called Miles

and I said, "What do you think of this?"

and after about half a second, he said,

(IMPERSONATING MILES) "Wait a minute. Mingus! Pick up the phone."

So there was a click on the other end.

Miles said, "Listen to this shit."

SHE LAUGHS

And he played it for Mingus. They just went crazy.

They just went crazy.

SHUFFLING PIANO

Then, when it was played back to us,

Annie, Dave and I...

..sat down and cried like babies.

We wept.

And I can say to this day I have never heard anything

so beautiful in my life.

RECORD PLAYS

HE LAUGHS

That's definitely John and Dave and I guess Annie, too.

DRUM BEAT KICKS IN

That's Dave.

SCAT SINGING

HE LAUGHS

That's patented Dave Lambert scat singing.

Dave was beautiful.

Do you remember, we were in Chicago, I think,

and we had a little rehearsal or something,

and Dave came and gave each of us a gift

of one of them miniature pipes, and he'd filed off the bottom

so it wouldn't tip over!

You remember? He passed one out to all of us!

I remember Dave in his apartment, taking out a brick...

..out of the fireplace...

-so he could stash...

-Stasherooney!

HE LAUGHS

Annie was a free spirit, no doubt about it.

At the same time, I thought she was really sophisticated.

But, yeah, she liked to hang out. She definitely liked to hang out

just like everybody else.

It's like she never loses her cool.

Never with Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.

No matter how many times Dave or Jon would fly off the handle

about who knows what,

Annie just kept her cool about it all the time.

You get with somebody and it's like a relationship.

Sometimes you really...

..think, "I can't do it. I can't go on."

HE LAUGHS

How you doing?

-So what's going on?

-I don't know.

We're in the dressing room over here now,

so we're just waiting for Jon. He's shaving.

It's 8 o'clock now, so I guess we're going to go on a little bit after.

He's impossible, she's impossible.

Are you ready?

This is like a family. What I'm saying, there's this common bond

and dysfunction because there's 50 or 60 years of...

..static, crap, bullshit. What ever you want to call it.

-Whoa!

-Annie Ross!

Jon Hendricks!

APPLAUSE

It's very hard and a very rare thing

if you're going to get those two to work together at this point.

For a number of reasons.

They don't want to be boxed into that repertoire

and that range where their voices aren't any more.

It's something they did that was great a long time ago

and they'd love to revisit it, but they don't want to have to be that.

# Later the waiter

# Had me arrested

# Took me to Bellevue

# Where I was tested

# Had me a doctor

# Probing my noodle

# Fore he was half done

# Taught him to doodle

# Showed him hidden thoughts that linger

# Find an outlet through your finger

# Doodling away

# Doodling away

# We just doodle all day. #

Woo!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Whoa!

-Annie Ross!

-LENNY BRUCE:

-Annie? Hey, baby, let's have you.

That's the best jazz singer in the world sitting over there.

Annie Ross.

We started booking Lenny Bruce as the opening act for us

in the Village Vanguard.

And that's when Dave and I first came across Lenny Bruce.

HE LAUGHS

And it was Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Terry Gibbs and Lenny Bruce.

And that was the whole package tour.

We had arrived early and it was maybe dinner time and the concert

was at night and Terry Gibbs came and knocked on my door and he said,

"Oh, I just came from Annie's room." I said, "Oh." And he said,

"I knocked on the door and they said, 'Who is it?',

"I said, 'It's Terry Gibbs', so they said 'Wait a minute'.

"And then the door opens and there's Lenny standing there

"in one of Annie's negligees."

I met him in Chicago through friends and I told him a joke

and he loved it. And that was the beginning.

He was really funny.

And very warm and tender. He was...

..very special, Lenny.

And crazy.

He would put "I love you" on an airsick bag...

SHE LAUGHS

..and mail it to me.

And that was so sweet.

-PRODUCER:

-You don't remember a telegram he sent you one time?

"Dear, stop, Annie, stop.

"You have the most beautiful, stop...

"..pussy, stop, in the world.

Well, how lovely!

That was Lenny.

-PRODUCER:

-Was there a change in Annie after she met Lenny?

Yes. She had somebody to get high with, you know.

Well, I mean, there are so many people

who I never would have believed would have used heroin.

And I found out, well, you just can't stereotype anyone.

There's no telling who will become addicted.

The bebop era seemed to introduce the massive use of heroin,

as well as the other drugs, you know.

Someone described heroin as a warm blanket.

And I think that's what it was to a lot of musicians.

It took away a lot of fear, a lot of hurt.

I had a lot of pain in my life.

And at one point I said, "That's all I want to do...

"..and that's the way I want to live my life."

God, when I think of it now.

It never helped anybody play any better, that's for sure.

The problem was, I think,

if you didn't have it you couldn't play at all.

Annie missed a couple of gigs.

She missed a couple of cues at the Apollo, and I said,

"We're going to find a place and take a cure."

We found a place in Switzerland,

and when we got some time off we sent Annie there.

The only thing about it was, it seemed to have worked,

except being back on the scene, she went right back into the same thing.

I was nuts.

I was on drugs.

I didn't want to do anything except take drugs.

And I knew if I didn't get off and I didn't stop I'd probably die.

And I wasn't ready to die.

TRUMPET INTERLUDE

Jim was a big, big brother.

And he was my helper and he looked after me and took me

to a little village called Fintry that is so beautiful and he rented

a house and I learned to fish.

And we had a vegetable garden. It was great.

And it was just beautiful, but I had a big task.

I had to stop doing what I was doing and get myself together.

And one night my brother said to me,

"I can't help you any more. That's it.

"If you want to kill yourself..."

And I think having the props knocked from under me.

Because if I knew what made me stop using drugs, I would bottle it

and sell it.

But I knew I had to do it and I did.

I did it without any help.

I hated Scotland when I first came back,

but that was the association, I think.

Now I love Scotland. The reason I love it is

because of my brother, Jimmy Logan.

He was my best friend.

I was so proud to have him as a brother.

I admired him tremendously.

And he had great compassion.

And I would have done anything for him because he was so good to me.

Fintry is a healing place.

It was the most peaceful place.

COCKEREL CROWS

You want to get in on the act, huh?

I saw very few people.

I really was kind of secular here.

And I read a lot and tried to sort my life out a lot.

I'm pretty strong.

I wasn't raised with my family, so I had to really...

..put forth effort to, uh...

..to remain sane.

SHE LAUGHS

And I did to an extent, I guess.

-DAVE:

-Let's go back to the end.

Sit down on the bench.

-Oh, is that what he wanted us to do?

-No, but we will.

And one night we stood about here, and he said to me,

"Well, I've got to go back to work."

"I just can't do it any more. You're on you own."

And I said, "OK", and I think that's what got me better.

And I had to get out and start living again.

# I'm in the mood for love

# Simply because you're near me

# Funny, but when you're near me

# I'm in the mood for love.

# There I go, there I go There I go... #

WOODWINDS PLAY

# Let there be you

# Let there be me

# Let there be oysters... #

I've never met a better man than Dave.

The love of anybody, but especially someone you love...

..is invaluable.

And I've been lucky, because I have a wonderful man.

'Every time I aim my arrows at the sun they always miss their mark'.

-'Just like...'

-'Leaving'.

'Just a lonely little lady in the dark'.

-'Leaving?' I don't remember...

-Yeah.

OK, there I go down the hill again.

# Every time I feel the little glow

# I always get a little shy

# Every time I stick my little chin out

# Always get a little... #

See that over there?

Yeah.

That used to be Annie's Room.

So that's where it was.

That's where it was. We were the first club in Covent Garden.

'A new type of club is springing up,

'jazz singer Annie Ross gives her name to such a club

'in Covent Garden.'

Wow!

# You're going to miss your baby one of these lone rainy days

# Well, goodbye

# Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

# Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye...

This used to be like a private bar with a window

that you could see the show from,

and you could talk, so that was convenient.

# Baby, don't say goodbye! #

Nah, they've changed it all.

Opening night, they were standing around the corner, waiting to get in.

And we'd had so many seats booked.

And at the last minute, Judy Garland walked in with about five people.

Basically, she fronted it, you know, and I just put up the dough.

She was there and she was on the gig and taking care of business.

She did beautifully.

We had everybody. We had stars from all over.

It was the place to go to.

They were making Lawrence of Arabia and Peter O'Toole came in the club.

Annie brought the whole cast from the film set back to the club.

And they were all completely out of it.

And O'Toole came over to Tony Kinsey's drum kit

and picked up a stick and started playing on his cymbal

in the middle of the gig.

I said, "Hey, cut that out, cut that out."

And he stopped for a bit and played a bit more and he'd do it again.

Nothing to do with what we were playing.

Tony sort of told him to F off.

And he said to me, "Do you know who I am? I'm Peter O'Toole."

And Tony said, "I couldn't give a fuck

"if you're Lawrence of Arabia, get off my drum kit."

One night down there, we had on the stage Duke Ellington's brass section

who were playing at the Festival Hall that night.

Tony Bennett was at the Albert Hall, he came down,

cos he was big pals with Annie.

Oscar Peterson came in and Jimmy Smith the organist

and I put the lot of them on the stage at the same time for a jam.

It must have gone on for an hour and a half.

And we started songs and I was getting up and singing a song

and Annie was getting up.

That's the greatest night of jazz I ever heard in my life.

The people who had the money wanted to make it more of a gambling club.

And instead of the wonderful whitewashed walls,

they wanted red velvet and gold and gambling.

And so we left.

The Beatles came along and the jazz scene really went down, you know.

# Using the phone booth

# Making a few calls

# Doodlin' weird things

# Using the booth walls

# Got me a big date

# Waiting for my chick

# Putting her face on

# So she can look slick

# I enjoy procrastination

# Doodlin' away

# Doodlin' away

# Sittin' and dinin'

# Dinner beginnin'

# Started designing

# Using my linen

# Talking to my date

# Doodlin' my bit

# Waiter got salty

# Told me to please quit

# Told the waiter, "Don't be dizzy

# "Can't you see I'm very busy?" #

Yeah, Annie's more like a musician than a singer in a lot of ways.

She can tell you what she wants and you don't roll your eyes.

You say, "Wow, she really knows what she's talking about."

Even though she doesn't use a lot of musical terminology.

She cannot lie to you.

If I had a nickel for every singer I went to work with

I didn't believe a word they were singing to me,

I could retire now in a nice big house in California.

You just don't find people with Annie's kind of honesty.

Well, I mean, she's so hip, you know.

She's had all that wealth of experience and knowledge that she

puts into her music and it comes from the original source, you know.

Everything she touches is full of absolutely great jazz, you know.

# No-one here will love or understand me

# The hard luck stories they all hand me

# Come on and make my bed... #

The one thing that always sticks in my mind

most of all about Annie was how professional she was.

She used to love to party, probably still does,

but every time we did a show, she was right on it every single time.

Total, total professional.

# Come on, make my bed!

# Light my lights

# I'm gonna arrive kinda late tonight

# Blackbird

# Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye

# Pretty blackbird

# Bye! #

OK. Er, the list that we have made is this one.

What do you think of it? This afternoon's project.

And also Blackbird, and also...

Oh, Blackbird! We rehearsed it.

Well, we go way back now. I mean, that's weird

because she had already had a bunch of lives by the time I met her so...

We've never succeeded in really annoying each other.

# The mere idea

# Of you

# That longing

# Here for you

# You'll never know

# How slow

# The moments felt

# Till I'm near to you

# I see your face

# In every flower

# Your eyes in stars above

# It's just the thought of you

# The very thought of you

# Oh, my love

# Oh, my love... #

I have arrhythmia, which is irregular heartbeat.

Or...

SHE SINGS I got rhythmia.

I got to Glasgow and I went to the hospital

and they said, "Maybe you'll go home tomorrow, maybe not."

And I said, "I have to, I have to go into the city.

"I've got a show on Friday night."

So finally, after much pestering and pressure,

they said, "OK, you can go."

I was told something that Sean Connery said.

Where he said, "Life is like a three act play, the first act is great,

"the second act is great and the third act is shit."

SHE LAUGHS

And I really believe that. It's a drag.

It's part of life,

but it's a drag to say, "What did you say?"

Or, "What does that say?"

Anything like that. That's not a lot of fun.

The golden years?

She comes from a tough clan, I'll tell you that.

HE LAUGHS

Woo!

She hits the stage, she gets her make up on,

she's ready to go and she is alive.

Before I go on, I say to myself, "I'm so happy to be here."

Even if it is a little ironic and I'm feeling very tired or whatever.

I just feel, "Yeah, let's hit it."

AUDIENCE APPLAUD

# I'm travelling light

# Because my man has gone

# So from now on

# I'm travelling light

# He said goodbye

# And took my heart away...

I've never gone with anything that is the popular belief.

I think I was a bit of a rebel.

And...

I always was searching, searching.

# So from today

# I'm travelling light...

Bandstand, stage lights, audience, that's home for her.

I mean, ever since she was a little kid, that's maybe the closest thing,

that she's home and she's alive and she's ready to swing.

# No-one but me

# And my memories

# Some starry night... #

That's the great thing, the healing thing about music

is that you can feel like shit and you go on and do your thing

and you feel better.

# Until then, I'm travelling

# Until then, I'm travelling light

# Bye, bye! #

One, two, three, four.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd